Wings of Hope
by mind of a madman
Summary: In order to stop Grima from bringing ruin to the world, Naga used her power to send those who would try to stop his evil to the past, but now her involvement with the timeline and her good intentions may bring the end to not only Ylisse but the other outrealms as well. With no other choice Naga places her hopes on the Robin of the timeline that may end Everything.
1. prologue-Fell dragon's vision of the end

Prolog-Fell dragon's vision of the end.

 _Mount Prism: Ruined timeline_

His heart was calm as he walked through Naga's temple, waiting for his plan to unfold. Biding his time, he knew failure was not an option, for if he did all would be lost.

As Grima made his way through this holy ground he felt sick to his stomach _I wish I could just destroy this place and be done with it._ he thought to himself, but no sooner did that thought come to mind that it was interrupted by the very person he was looking for.

Naga, the leader of the divine dragons, the one many other dragons revere as king, sat in her throne, her calm and soothing voice felt like needles in his ears.

"Grima, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Naga said from her thrown, trying to sound as court as possible.

"I think you know why I've come, so why don't we cut the pleasantry bullshit and get this over with." Grima said with no patience for idle chit chat.

"Very well" Naga sat up "shall we take this outside?"

Grima smirked "Allow me" and with a wave of his hand he sent a blast of dark energy at the roof of the temple, destroying it and revealing a darkened sky.

"How pleasant." Naga said with a tinge of annoyance in her voice from having her roof blown off.

Grima only laughed as he began to transform into his dragon form. Naga followed suit taking her dragon form as well and they both took off into the sky from the new "skylight".

"Shall we then?" Naga said to her fellow dragon kin.

"We shall" Grima said back before charging at her with killer intent "DIE NAGA!"

And so the battle between the divine dragon king and the wings of despair began and as it did all he could think to himself was _be patient_ as the battle commenced.

-4 days later-

The battle was long and arduous. Both Naga and Grima fighting to end the others life. The very fate of the world hinging on who came up on top. The landscape bearing as testament to their battle, as mountain ranges became flatland, craters and ravines dotting it.

At this point both of them where exhausted, using up much of their power in the battle, its conclusion soon to come.

 _Just a little longer, wait for it, if you mess this up it will be the end of everything_

Grima looked upon Naga as a predator would its prey. Although both were running on fumes now, Grima knew he had more power left.

"This the end NAGA!" Grima shout as he sent a wave a dark spikes at Naga. With no other choice Naga took back to the sky before she could get impaled. As she did Grima took this opportunity to strike at her from above, fully prepared to finish this "now DIE!"

 _ **NOW!**_

Just before Grima could deliver the final blow to Naga he felt his body go numb. Sensing this hesitation Naga fired a beam of light that pierced though his gut.

"Curse….this human…heart." Is all Grima could get out before he lost consciousness and began to fall out of the sky, reverting back to human form as he did. Before he hit the ground however Naga caught him, also reverting back to her human form, and began to fly them both back to her temple.

"You look like hell Naga, but I'm happy you're alive" Robin said in a weak voice as he opened his eyes while being carried.

"Rude" Naga said giving a small smile to him, both parts relieved and concerned "I'm happy to see you as well"

The two of the found their selves back in the throne room, Robin being rested on his knees as Naga knelt down in front of him.

"Did you have to destroy my roof?" Naga said staring at the hole with a joking smile and a giggle.

"Hey wasn't me" Robin replied chuckling as well, but soon stopped as he winced from the pain he felt in his gut.

"I'm sorry" Naga said as she put a hand to Robin's wound with a pained expression on her face.

"Can't keep your hands off me huh? I know I'm quite dashing and all, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying this too but we have things to do and not much time." Robin joked with a cheeky grin.

"Shut up" Naga puffed out her cheeks, pouting at the man "or do you want another hole?"

"Nah" Robin replied as he reached into his coat and grabbed a tome "Get it?"

Naga giggled at the light hearted jab at the young manakete's name, then she looked down at the tome he carried.

"What is this?" Naga asked with a bit of shock at the object in the man's hand.

"Our hope" Robin responded as he held Grima's truth.

Naga gave him a confused look so he continued "As you know because of our involvement with the timeline many things have changed, but one such timeline has a great threat, one even greater then even Grima or Anankos that threatens to destroy everything."

"I know, I've been keeping a watch on it for some time now, but I fear even I won't be able to stop what's to come."

"That's why we have this" he raised the tome" he raised the tome "with this hope still lives and we can tip the scales in our favor"

"And what do you intend to do with it" Naga questioned still not sure of Robins scheme.

"It's simple really" he paused taking a deep breath before finishing his thought "I intend to create a new holy weapon using this tome as its base, like you did with the book of Naga and the falchion, but rather than just using a part of myself, I will sacrifice my entire being in its creation and cast it to this cursed timeline's Robin."

Naga stared at him wide eyed for a moment in silence trying to process what he just said.

"Are you mad!? You do know what happens when a holy weapon is created don't you? All traces of the soul the weapon comes from disappears in its creation leaving only the raw power of the being it comes from. It's one thing to use a part of yourself like a fang but to use your entire being I-

Robin cuts her off

"I don't see the down side really, we get what we need and destroy grima's soul in the process" he gave her a content smile.

"And yours too! Robin please there has to b-"

"There is no other way and you know it" he looked up at the sky "besides aren't you sick of the world looking like this?"

She gave him a sad look, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"And what of the robin of that timeline? If you do this, if we send it to him he will no longer be human."

"It'll be fine, the kid is tough, he has is mother and his sister by his side." Robin looked back to her "Hell that's more than Robin has had in any timeline before meeting Chrom and besides doing this has the added benefit of severing that Robin's connection with that timeline's Grima"

"So there is really no talking you out of this?" Naga's tears finally began to fall.

"We don't have time, if we don't do this soon Grima will wake up and everything will be for not" Robin replied not giving Naga an answer to her question.

Naga took the tome from Robin's hand.

"Very well I'll do as y-"

"NOOO!" a little girl who was hiding behind the thrown shouted as she ran up to them. Robin simply smiled as the green haired 6 year old crashed into him, almost knocking him down, as she gave him a hug.

"It's good to see you sweetie, you've gotten bigger since I last saw you" Robin said returning the hug.

"Father please don't go, you just got back, and you can't leave now" she mumbled into his chest sobbing.

"I guess you heard what your mother and I were talking about huh Morgan?"

She nodded not taking her face out of his chest or releasing him from the hug.

Robin sighed "I'm sorry honey but…" Robin paused finally letting loose the tears he had tried so hard to contain. "I-I have to go."

Morgan's only response was more tears at the news of losing her father. Naga joined the hug as well and for a moment the stayed there in each other's embrace.

"Naga" Robin said softly.

Naga let go first and gently put a hand on her daughter's shoulder "Morgan"

Morgan understanding what she meant reluctantly let go of her father and taking a step back. Before she got too far away Robin cupped her cheeks in his hands and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Be a good little girl for your mother okay Morgan and know that daddy loves you" he said with a sad smile.

"I-I…will father…I…p-promise….and I love you…too" Morgan said sobbing, giving her father one last hug before finally walking behind her mother.

Robin turned to Naga "Naga I'm s-"

Naga cut him off with a kiss, one that didn't take Robin long to return in kind. As their lips met time seemed to stop for them as they tried to enjoy this bittersweet moment, the last they would be able to share together. But unfortunately time was short and this task was one that needed to be done.

Naga broke the kiss and raised the tome above Robin's head, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "I love you."

Robin looked up at her ready for what came next "I love you too"

Naga bit her lip and poured her power into the tome and a blinding light shone from it engulfing Robin. Morgan hid behind her mother not wanting to see what was to happen to her father next.

Robin looked up with his eyes closed, his body feeling as if it was on fire as if being burned by the light. "Chrom, everyone, forgive me." He said in barely a whisper as he looked back on his past sins.

As Robin faded away Grima screamed in agony as his soul was destroyed and only his power remained. Then the light faded and the tome dulled, it was no long Grima's truth, it had transformed into something new. And just as the tome had changed so too had the sky brightened, the sun shining in a world that has gone so long without it.

 _May this bring hope to the world that needs it_ Naga thought to herself as she sent the tome to a different timeline and looked up at the bright sky and prayed for a better future.

 _Garden of giants -Valm: Prophesized timeline_

A young Greened haired boy look at his gift in awe as his mother presented him with a weapon that has been passed down in their family for generations.

"It looks so cool, but what is this for mother?" a young robin asked confused as to what this sudden gift was for.

"Priam tells me that your training has been going well, so I'd thought we could celebrate your achievement with a little gift, that and I remember how frustrated you got when I gifted alondite to you sister"

Robin thought back to when his mother gave his twin alondite and how sad he was for not getting something too, but that thought was pushed far away as he looked upon the blade in front of him now.

"You said it's been passed down in our family for generations, is it special?" he question.

"Very special" she smiled to her son. "This sword was once used to help our ancestors stop a great evil and unified the valmese continent"

Robin's eyes began to sparkle and his mother giggled at his excitement

"This is my gift to you Robin, the falchion"

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 **hello everyone! so first I'd like to say this is my first fanfic, so I don't really know how good it is, so if you guys could give me you feed back on it that would be great!**

 **second, I'll probably be posting chapter 1 of this in a day or two just so that way we can get into the story a little more, so look out for it.**


	2. Chapter 1-So We Meet Again For the First

**So I did this chapter really late in the night so there might be some grammatical errors as you get farther into this, just fair warning. make sure to review a tell me what then so far.**

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Chapter 1-So We Meet Again For the First Time

The last two weeks were exhausting for Robin and Linnet, both physically and mentally, as the lay out in a field on the outskirts of the Ylissian captain. It had been a year since the two had arrived on the continent in search of any information they could get on the grimleal. When they first arrived they found their selves in Regna Ferox which they made into their temporary base of operations. From there they took turns gathering the info they were looking for with one of them leaving ferox to go to plegia to search while the other would stay in ferox to fight in the area to gather money and go to the bars to keep up on current events happening around the continent, from random bandit attacks to slightly larger conflicts happening between the neighboring nations. By doing this they always had an idea of where they should be searching and what areas to avoid on their trips in and out of Regna Ferox. This was their routine for the better part of a year and it worked with them finding grimlean hideouts, sneaking in, stealing information, and leaving before they could be discovered or if they could manage to do it on their own wipe out the base entirely. The majority of the info they would gather was normally not all that important, most were kill list, targets that where of high priority to the grimleal that they wanted dead. Others such list that they got where of people the cult planed on gathering to sacrifice to their dark god Grima. What was useful, and rare to find, were any documents on the cult's movements and any tomes that described techniques, like special hexes and blood rituals, or Items, like warp powder, made and known only to those apart of the cult. Then things took a turn for the worst and they ran into one problem after another.

This started when Plagia started sending bandits disguised as ylissian soldiers to the feroxi border to attack. At first these attacks were small in number but as time went on they became more frequent, forcing the khans of ferox to tighten security around the border which in turn made it harder for anyone to come and go from ferox as they pleased. That combined with the fact that their clothing was very reminiscent of those wore in plagia made it nay impossible for them to do as they had been during their time there without being suspected as plagian spies. So with no other choice available to them they decided to relocate and set up somewhere else to continue their search into the grimleal, which would have been a quick task to complete, but because of their many victories in the area during their stay in ferox they had caught the eyes of the khans. Before they could even consider leaving both khans had met with them and requested that they become there champions for the coming tournament of the khan in a about a month's time, a request that they both quickly but politely declined. Although the khans where slightly disappointed in the decline of their offer they understood their choice, but rather than letting them leave then and there, Khan Flavia had the brilliant idea of having a fight with the twins before they left and upon hearing this Khan Basilio wanted to join as well. With no real way to refuse and not necessarily being in the biggest of rushes when it came to leaving both decided it would be fine to except the Khans' challage, which ultimately was fun for the both of them. Beyond fighting both Knans, which ended in a tie as neither side could get ahead of the other nor were willing to yield, they also where challenged by a man named Lon'qu who was one of Basilio current champions. In that fight both twins had manage to best the swordsmen, although Robin's fight with him was more evenly match and Linnet's was kind of one-sided. After that the Khan invited both of them for a drink, to which they accepted and soon quickly regretted. Because the khans had them drink with them all night the next morning they both woke up with the worst hangover they had ever experienced, but since they had everything ready to go and did not wish to linger any longer, they had no choice but to fight through pain in their heads and leave Ferox. This is when their two weeks of hell truly began.

While heading south, both twins thought that it might be a good idea to head to Plagia one last time to see if they could find another grimlean hideout in it or around its border. Going to Plegia they did indeed found an active hideout for the cult using the Intel that they had collected from their previous successful infiltrations. However they didn't expect it to be a trap set up for them and to be surrounded by dark mages. Out number and at a clear disadvantage they had no choice but to retreat as a group of grimleal assassins gave chase. With the shifting sand under their feet, the burning sun over their heads, and the enemy at their backs, escape was not only hard but taxing as well. Even when they finally made it out of the desert there was no time for reprieve as the wanted to get as far away from their pursuers as possible. This went on for days, as they kept moving, only allowing their selves short breaks to regain enough energy to keep going. During one such break in their haste Linnet forgot to pack their water skins back up leaving both without water as they kept moving away from Plegia and when Robin asked her how she could possible forget their water supply, knowing her own mistake and not in any mood to have someone remind her of it, her response was to pelt her brother with figs effectively ending that discussion all together and leaving Robin with serval bruises on his body. For the next 3 days the two kept going until their bodies couldn't take any more and they both collapsed.

Robin was in a dark space looking at a dream like an outsider looking in, or was it a memory? He didn't really know what it was but it wasn't the first time it's happened nor did Robin believe it would be the last. Beside him watching along was a man that looked like him expect the cloak he wore was an exact copy of his mother's and he had white hair. The man Robin knew As G was nothing new either, he first appeared in Robin's mind when he was 4 years old and has been with Robin since. When G first came along Robin thought he was nothing more than a figment of his overly active imagination as a child, but as time went by and G stayed with him he knew that was not the case. Robin was worried at first, even going as far as calling his sanity into question, but Robin soon let that go and just accepted that he would just have to live with G in his head. What Robin did know about G was very little, as G Himself had no memories of his time before finding himself in Robin's head. What G did know or at least guessed, was that the dreams that Robin and him share together where fragments of his own memory, piece that he could not recall but felt familiar to him all the same. This particular memory was actual quite clear, it seemed to be at the end of some kind of war, with many people congratulating and thanking a man in a green cloak that they referred to as Lord Mark.

 _Elibe._ G whispered to himself

 _Do you remember this?_ Robin questioned

 _It feels familiar but I do not believe I was actually about of this event, it is more like I'm connect to it in some way._ G responded

Robin was going to ask G what he meant by that, but then the man name Mark dropped his hood and paused that thought. He looked exactly Robin and G, only his hair was brown

 _Well that's shocking, just how many people have my face? And if this is not your memory then how are we able to see it?_

G just shrugs unsure of how himself.

The memory fragment ended with a boy named Nils disappearing into something refer to as the "Dragon Gate" and Mark, which Robin just now realized was their tactician, being invited to go to a man named Hector's wedding.

 _It would seem our show is done for now._ G Said

 _It seems so._ Robin agreed as G's physical appearance faded leaving only his voice to remain

 _You have some guest awaiting your awakening._ As G said that Robin began to hear voices through the darkness of his mind.

"Chrom we have to do something…" a female said

Chrom? Like the prince of Ylisse?

"What do you purpose we do?" another responded, male this time

Before they could continue to go over what they should do about the passed out strangers they happened upon in the middle of a field Robin opened his Eyes and cut their conversation there.

Noticing Robin waking up, the expressions on their faces calmed and they turned to great him.

"Hello there," the man, who Robin was shocked to see was indeed the prince of Ylisse, said "you know there are better places to nap then on the ground"

Robin's response to this was a weak "water"

"Huh?"

"Do you have water?" Robin said again as loudly as his dry throat would allow

"Ah, sure," chrom said pulling out a water skin and handing it to him "here you go"

Robin wasted no time taking the water and drinking some of it "Ahhh, thanks that's much better" Robin said

"By the way who is that next to you? Is she your girlfriend" the girl Robin recognized as princess Lissa said while pointing at them

Robin followed the princess's finger and saw that for some reason he was holding onto his sister's hand. Quickly letting go Robin replied to her question "No, this is my sister, speaking of which" robin brought his face close to Linnet's ear and whispered "hey sis I found water"

As If being brought back to life, Linnet rose up and swiftly snatch the water skin out of robin's hands and took a few gulps "woooo, Now I feel alive again!" she said before taking a look around, and seeing all the people around her.

Lissa giggled at Linnet's reaction to getting water while helping her up, while Chrom did the same for Robin.

After being helped up Linnet took this chance to lean into her bother with a hand over her mouth, but spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, clearly not caring if everyone else heard her "hey aren't they the prince and princess of Ylisse"

"Oh, so you know of us?" Chrom asked

"It's kind of hard not to of least heard of the two of you" Robin replied

"Since you already know my lords, it's only fair that you give us your names as well and remove your hoods while you at it" a man clad in blue armor atop a house said to the twins, eying them with suspicion

"Isn't it only fair to give your own name before asking other for theirs?" Linnet said not enjoying the man's attitude

"Don't mind grumbly ol'Frederick over there he's like that with everybody" Lissa informed them

"It's no problem he's only doing his job," Robin stated removing his hood revealing a head a green hair "my name is Robin and as for my sister here…" Robin nudged her arm telling her it was her turn to give her name

"And my name is Linnet" she said still a little put off by the knight and refusing to take off her hood, which earned her another glare from the man

"So why were the two of you out here pasted out without water?" Chrom asked curious about the two strangers In front of him

"We're travels that where passing through when we got attacked by some bandit along the way, during our escape we dropped a bag containing our water skins along with some other supplies" Linnet replied to Chrom's question

"We?" Robin said which made Linnet put a hand in the pocket she carried her figs in "r-right we did! Hehe" he quickly corrected himself and she smiled at her brother

"We actually are not quite sure where we are at the moment, we know where close to Ylistol but nothing beyond that" she continued

"You guys are actually just outside of southtown, we can take you there if you want, if only to make sure you don't pass out again along the way" Lissa said with a giggle

"Or to keep an eye on you and make sure your story matches up" Fredrick added

"Frederick!" Chrom said scolding the man "but Lissa is right we could escort you their if you wouldn't mind" he confirmed to the twin

"Then we'll take you up on that offer" Robin replied while Linnet gave him back his water skin. And with that they all started making their way down the road

 _This feels familiar somehow_ G told Robin

"How so?" Robin mumbled to himself

 _I do not know, but I feel like I've seen this seen Play out many many time before_ he replied

"That's strange, since when could you have met a member of the Ylissian royal family?" He ask

"Is he okay?" Lissa asked Linnet about the man mumbling to himself

"Yeah he's fine, he just does that from time to time" she told the young Princess

"Oh okay, so you said you two are travelers, right? Where did you two come from?" Lissa questioned

"We're actually from Valm, but our mother told us that we were born In Plegia"

"That explains your attire at least" Frederick committed

"Let my guess, you were suspicious of our clothes too "'Sir Fredrick the wary'" Linnet responded and at that Both Chrom and Lissa bust out laughing

"What did I say something funny" Linnet asked confused at their sudden out burst

"Ha ha, she barely knows you Frederick and she already has you figured out" Chrom said to armor clad man

Finishing her laughing fit Lissa answered Linnet's questioned "That's Kind of the shepherd's nickname for him haha"

"The shepherds?" Robin asked finally done taking to himself "you herd sheep?"

"I told you it was a stupid name Chrom" Lissa said looking at her brother

Ignoring her comment Chrom started to reply to Robin's "It's the name of the small militia group we formed to protect Ylisse from the increasing bandit attacks"

"Milord, Is it truly ok to tell thes two such information?" Fredrick stated

"What's wrong Frederick? They seem trust worthy enough and how many times most I tell you to use my name?"

"Along with the fact that we still know next to nothing about their back grounds, you don't normally see regular travelers carrying weapons along with them on their journey" he pointed to the swords on each of their waist

"Now that you mention it their weapons do look unique" Lissa said taking notice of their swords

"Our mother gave these to us when we were little and we've had them ever since" Robin said

"Knowing this guy, that answer won't be enough to satisfy him" Linnet turned to the Knight "Beyond being keepsakes we spent much of our time here battling in the areas of Ferox if you must know"

"So you two are warriors as well? Maybe we cou-"before Chrom could finish Lissa shouted at him

"Chrom look!" she said pointing at a burning village in the distance "we need to go!"

Chrom sore under his breath "Lissa, Frederick, we need to get down there now"

Lissa nodded in agreement.

"What about these two milord?" Frederick asked Chrom

"Unless they're on fire too, they can wait. NOW LET GO!" And he turned and started running towards the village.

Lisaa raced after him and after a short pause Frederick followed suit chasing after his charges

"So they just left us huh?" Robin ask his sister

"Yep" she looked around for a bit "should we just leave?"

"We could but something tells me they ran there without a plan" Robin said look back at the burning village

"The way the Prince rushed in like that I'm inclined to agree" she stated

"wanna help them?" he asked

"sure, besides the fact that I think we'd get In trouble if people found out we knowingly let two members of the Ylissian royal family rush to their death, I'd feel bad If the villagers got killed and would could've of stopped it"

"I noticed you didn't say anything about Frederick" Robin smirked

"Oh I didn't? I wonder why" she smiled back "though I guess if I saved him he might stop acting like such a prude around us" and at that comment the both ran to catch up with the Ylissian trio.

Chrom was currently cursing his rashness at the moment. When the three had made their way into Southtown much of it was in flames, but the damage was not nearly as bad as it had look from a distance. It was more of a scare tactic used to either make it inhabitant flee or too scared to go against the brigands as the ransacked the place. While sneaking through the village Chrom overheard the tail end of a conversation, which he could only assume was the brigand lead shouting out "orders" to his men. What he failed to realizes was that by rushing in like he did he had essentially ran into the "wyvern's den". So when they were eventually spotted they were surround by the enemy force in instant and had no choice to fight them off as best they could in there "home field". Although Chrom and Frederick could handle the untrained barbarians well enough, their so many around then that they eventually got separated from Lissa. Now a man with an Ax was now upon Lissa get ready to attack.

"GET AWAY!" Lissa shouted as she hit the man over the head with her staff

"Why you little!..." the man then shoved her down to the ground hard witch prompted Chrom to rush toward him

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Chrom shouted going for the man

However the brigand simply raise his ax and look at him "now now, another move like that and I don't know what might happen to the princess next" at that Chrom stopped and the man smirk forcing Lissa up by her arm "Now this this is what's gonna happen next, ya'll gonna drop your weapon there and we're go see my boss I'm sure he is going love seeing you prince" he laughed

Chrom was about to comply when all of a sudden he saw a white and red blur run past him and charge straight to the man who held lissa captive. Before he could even raise his ax it was knock out of his hand with a decisive strike to his wrist, his grip weak from thanking he had won against Chrom, then the next instant he felt the length of alondite slash through his body in one vicious one-armed swing. Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick were all stunned at what they had seen as the women who did it turned to Lissa.

"Are you okay?" Linnet ask the princess

"Y-you are Linnet, r-right?" Lissa asked her

Linnet was a bit confuse at first but then realized that her hood had fell off from the speed at which she raced to take down the now lifeless man at her feet, Her white and auburn hair flowing in the wind "Yes I am" she simply replied back

Lissa smiled "thank you very much, you sav-" her eyes widened "LOOK OUT" as a swordsmen came out of the woodwork charging at the two of them

Chrom ran to try and stop the man's advance when…

"Expiration"

A pile of dark spike rose from the ground in front of Lissa and Linnet, acting as both and attack and a defensive wall around them. The brigand however had good reflex and just barely managed to not get Impale by the spikes as they appeared, but what he failed to realized was that at some point during that entire exchange Linnet had thrown her alondite into air and that someone else had just caught the blade and was now barreling down at him.

The shock on his dying face was enough to prove that he did not see the attack coming as Robin slammed down to the ground with a thunderous crash shouting "AETHER!" cutting the man from his right shoulder to his left hip then bringing the blade back up in another one-armed swing to cut off his head.

Yet again Chom, Lissa, and Frederick were left speechless as to what they just witness

Frederick was the first to regain his composure managing to say "just Travelers huh?" in a sarcastic tone while the twins gave him a cheeky grin. Then Chrom, finally having been able to mentally process what just happened, spoke up as well

"Thanks you two for saving Lissa if it weren't for the two of you I don't know how we would have gotten out of that, but… why did you follow us? You could have just as easily left us behind."

Robin looked at him and smiled "You know normally a when someone goes into the heat of battle they have a plan, right? When Linnet and I so when you just charge into the fray like that we figured you had none and decided to lend a hand" he looked around cursing the people responsible for the damaged of the village then continued with a more serious an expression painted across his face "to do so is tantamount to suicide, it puts not only yourself but the people fighting with you and those your trying to protect at risk"

Frederick's own expression soured as he heard the man berating his lord and he was about to say some when Chrom started to laughing

"You're absolutely right and it makes me happy to hear that you not only came to aid us but the villagers as well. If it's not too much to ask of you, would it be possible for you two to see us through the rest of this fight?"

The twin turn to look at one another before they replied "Of course" to the prince

Lissa trying to take a step towards the rest of the group felt a tinge a pain on her knee. When she looked down she saw it was scraped _it must have happened when that guy knocked me down earlier_ she thought two herself as she prepared to use her mend staff on her wound

"Wait" Linnet stopped her and knelt down in front of the princess, bring her hand just above her wound she poured her magical energy into her hand and started to heal her "there that should do it" she said stand back up

"Wow, how did you do that!?" Lissa asked excited "you didn't even need a staff"

"If it only a shallow wound I can mend it pretty easily without a staff"

"That's amazing" Chom said to her just as Impressed

"So what's the plan Robin" Linnet asked her brother

Robin closed his eyes and focused on his surroundings, using what he called his "fell's eyes" technique he saw the entire village and the enemies left in it.

"There are 7 enemies left, 2 axmen, 2 swordsmen, and 3 archer" Frederick gave him a look that said how could you possible know that while Chrom just shrug in a manner that Robin could only assume meant, I'll go with it and so he continue "Chrom and Linnet will be up front, since there are no lancers and you both have speed you'll be able to deal with these untrained brigand quickly in a fight. Lissa and I will be in the middle, since Lissa is not suited for combat and is our main healer keeping her in the most secure part of the formation is Important and since I can use magic I can deal with the enemy archers should the come baring down on the two of you in the front, also if anyone get to close to the middle of the formation I can always handle them with my blade. Last but not least Frederick will take the rare, your job is to fight off anyone who may try to attack us from behind and since you have armor if a archer tries to shot at our backs you'll be able to protect us and give me enough time to locate and deal with them with my magic."

After hearing the plan there was a collective nod of agreement and everyone got into position.

…

As they moved through Southtown the first opponents the group encountered were the two sword uses. Of course Robin had already knew where they were and had warn Linnet and Chrom of the enemy beforehand. The first swordmen charged at two with a wide swing intending to take off both of their heads in one shot, but was stopped when Linnet used alondite to stop him mid swing and Chrom stabbed him through the heart with his falchion. The next man using his allies dead body as cover attempted to get the drop on them, but found that his sword-hand hand been removed with another swing alondite, his life ending shortly after with his neck being slit by Chrom. As they continue forward Robin shot a random thunder spell at a room top, or at least that what everyone else thought, the archer Robin had startled with his spell can tumbling down the roof and as he fell he found a bed a black spike awaited him courtesy of Robin's Expiration. Next and ax user who waited for the group to pass and attempted to sneak attack them from behind as he ran to attack Frederick found himself Impaled at the end of his lance. As they reach a bridge the group saw the remaining two archers and the brigand leader standing there waited for them.

"Stop right there take another step and my men will fill you with arrows" he said with smirk on his face

 _Clearly this man can't tell when he's lost_ G said which got a laugh out of robin

"What's so damn funny!?" he shouted

"Your face" Robin replied which got everyone in the group to laugh, even Frederick chuckled

"Why you!, MEN FIRE" and at that order his men Let loose the arrows

At that Robin simply cast Expiration again creating another protective way in Front of Chrom and Linnet and after that they both ran out of cover and took down the two archers before they could even reach for their quiver again, Chrom slashing his opponent across the chest and Linnet sending a shockwave of energy an her opponent from her blade when she was within range. The leader not even shock at the death of his allies raised his ax and prepared to fight as well. Something about the complete lack of caring the man hand at seeing his fellows die before him struck Robin the wrong way and with binding speed he charged past Chrom and his sister unsheathed his sword and struck at him, slashing a vertical hole though his side as a cross shape star mark glowed of his left hand.

"Looks like wear done" Robin said cleaning the blood of his sword and sheathing it, his mark disappearing as he let the hilt go

"Yeah" was Chrom's only reply to that

* * *

After spending some time sometime helping the villager but out the fires and declining their proposal to stay the night, which Lissa was upset about, they heading off back down the road.

"The two of you are amazing, swords and magic and in Robin's case tactics as well you can do everything.

"I guess spending you entire life training with a band a mercenaries will do that to you." Linnet responded to the princess

"It's not that big a deal" Robin said

"I think your selling yourself short" Chrom said to them "By the way, do you two know where you going after this?"

"Not really" Robin replied "our next destination is kind of up in the air right now"

"Then why don't you two join the shepherds, we're actually looking for a tactician right now and Robin I think you are the one we need"

"What about me? Do I get in on this deal?" Linnet asked

"Of course we could always use another talented swordsmen"

"Then I don't see any reason to refuse him do you Robin?" she smiled at her bother

Robin nodded then turned to Chrom "We appreciate the offer, when we first met you probably had a lot of questions for us and I'm willing to bet that after that fight you have even more. It takes a strong will to not only avoid asking them but to judge us solely on our character as well, and if that is the type of man that asking me to join his cause then I would be honored to do so" Robin put out his hand "Prince Chrom of Ylisse you have your tactician"

Chrom smiled at the man's words and shook his hand "well met and welcome to the shepherds"


	3. Chapter 2-The beginning of convergence

**A new chapter and likely the last one I'll do for a while since I still have school and life to worry about, as always leave me a review and give your thoughts on the story so far**

* * *

Chapter 2-The beginning of convergence

After traveling for some time towards Ylisstol the group decided it would be wise to stop and set up camp for the night. Everyone split up into groups to get the campsite ready, with Chrom and Linnet going to catch food, Robin and Lissa gathering fire wood, and Frederick setting up the bedrolls for the night. While they were doing their assigned task Lissa couldn't help but steal glances at Robin every now and again. She found him and his sister both fascinating, not in just the way they handle their self's in battle but how they act outside of it as well. Both of them seemed to be nice people from what Lissa could tell with her conversations with them, both before and after their fight in Southtown, however she did notice that Linnet had slightly less patience for anything that annoyed her then her brother did and she also seemed to have somewhat of a mischievous side to her which Lissa could relate too. Robin on the other hand always seemed to be lost in his thoughts when he wasn't talking to others, mumbling to himself most of the time, but despite this he seemed to be aware of everything around him even when he wasn't giving the world his full attention. What Lissa found the most interesting about him was his eyes. They were blood red and seemed to look through things rather than at them and when he fought back in Southtown she thought he was peering through everyone's soul with them, especially when he berated Chrom and killed the bandit leader. So because of the many mysteries surrounding the two and the fact she was now alone with one of them without her brother to tell her not to, she decided to go ahead and ask a few question to him.

 _I should probably start with an easy one_ she thought "so Robin how old are you?"

Robin thought for a moment before answering "hmm, I'll be 19 in a few months"

"Oh so your younger then Chrom then" she said while picking up a few more sticks and adding them to her pile _Alright so far so good, now for the next one_ "so you lived in Valm right? What is it like there? I've never been so I'm curious"

Robin smiled thinking back to the land he grew up in "Valm is a beautiful place with many sites, from the cherry blossoms that bloom in Chon'sin during the spring, to the Mila tree, and even wyvern valley" he answered picking up some thicker logs "but it's not without its problems, hopefully no new ones arose after my sister and I left" Robin said giving a contemplative thought "In any case this should be enough wood, should we head back?"

Lissa wanted to ask more but she knew she shouldn't be too pushy with someone she just met "yeah let's go" and with that they headed back to the campsite to see that Frederick had already finished preparing the site and found they had gotten back first.

Meanwhile Chrom and Linnet where hunting for food, and had just now spotted a bear.

"Looks like we're having bear for tonight" Chrom said

"I know Robin will be happy about that, hehe" Linnet replies

"He likes bear meat huh?"

"More like he's obsessed with it" she readied her sword "shall we?"

Chrom did so as well "yeah let's do it" and with that they made quick work of the creature.

"I must say your skill with a sword is impressive, if you don't mind me asking, how long have you been using a sword for?"

"Let's see," Linnet put a finger to her chin "Robin and I have had practice weapons in our hands since we were 2 years old"

"So young? Why?" Chrom replied curious about the twins training at such a young age.

"Our mother wanted us to be prepared for anything, so as soon as we could talk she started our training in magic and when we could walk we trained with weapons" she sheathed her blade "to be honest I'm not as good in magic as my brother since the only types of magic I can use are Light and healing, ironic consider he can't use either, but when it comes to the sword I have him beat"

"Light magic? I've never seen that before, but considering that both of you seem capable with a sword it's hard to imagine that either of you is better than the other" he thought back to Southtown "and that move Robin pulled off, Aether I think he called it, I've been practicing something similar but the way he did it was so cool looking"

Linnet giggled at him "that's funny, I was thinking your swordplay looked pretty cool as well, it's vastly different from anything that I've seen anyone else use in my time as a fighter"

"You think so? Well I did come up with my own style of fighting" he said scratching the back of his head.

"Well it shows, it looks both strong yet elegant at the same time, something truly enjoyable to watch" Chrom couldn't help but blush at those words "well should we get this guy back?" she pointed at the dead game.

"Yeah" he replied thankful that his blush went unnoticed and helping her drag their catch back to camp.

Dinner that night was pretty uneventful, Lissa complained about the food brought back and refused to touch it and Frederick claimed that he had a big lunch, but it was quite obvious he was not keen on eating bear meet, something Linnet noticed and took a mental note of. Everyone else ate their food just fine, Robin even opting to eat Lissa and Fredericks potions. When they were done and the fire started to died down everyone laid down to get some rest, something that both Robin and Linnet were thankful for given that they had been on the move only taking short rests for the past few days now.

…

It was the same dark space Robin had grown accustomed to and another memory playing for him to view with G at his side.

 _Two in one day is rare isn't?_ Robin asked G

 _It is, they seem to be growing in frequency as days go by_ G answered back

He's right, Robin thought, before when he was younger these fragments would only come to him every couple of months and when they did they were blurry and distorted. But now they're clear, far easier to see and understand and the amount of memories that come have raised dramatically.

This memory they were looking at seemed to be a continuation to the last one in some way. Lord Hector had just gotten married and approached Mark to ask him to be the godparent to his future child. Mark seemed to be strongly against the idea, even going as far as saying "you don't even have a child yet so why do you care?" to which Hector responded with "It's not a matter of if but when". Upon over hearing their conversation a man named Eliwood walked over and joined in as well, intending to invite Mark and Hector to his wedding In a couple months' time, which Mark kind of looked like he wanted to decline but ultimately accept with a genuine smile on his face. When the whole Godparent topic was brought back up by Hector, Eliwood seemed to like the idea quite a lot and ask the man to be it for his future child as well. Not having it him to say no to two people at the same time he accepted their request, however it didn't end there. As proof of his new position both men made the tactician come up with names for their kids as well. Hector was pretty certain that he would have a boy in the future, but the tactician was not convinced of that, rather Mark believed Hector would have a daughter and Eliwood would be the one with a son and so he gave them the names Lilina and Roy respectively.

With that the memory ended, or so Robin and G thought, but a new one showed up right after. This new memory was short but what it showed sent a chill down their spines. It showed a land burning with what looked to be hundreds of dragons flying around in the sky.

 _What was that?_ Robin asked

 _I do not know, but Robin you must wake now. Something is….coming_

 _What do you mean?_ But before he could get G to elaborate he was forced up by a sickening feeling forming in his gut. Opening is eyes he could see he was not alone Chrom and Lissa where up as well.

"You get a bad feeling too?" Chrom asked

"Yeah, one that makes me sick to my stomach" was his reply

"Want to come along with us then and check it out?" he asked

"I will" Linnet said stirring awake

"Sorry did we wake you?" Lissa asked

"A little" she replied grabbing her sword "Robin I'll go with them, you wake up Frederick and be ready if we need your help"

"Got it" and with that the three ventured into the forest while Robin woke Frederick "Frederick it's time to get up, we have a problem"

Frederick shot up fast to those words "What going on and where are milords?" he asked

"Chrom and I had a bad feeling, so He, Lissa, and Linnet headed into the forest to investigate and they wanted me to wake you so that we could be prepared to lend our aid should a problem arise"

At that answer Frederick nodded and got himself ready just in case something did happen.

Several minutes pasted with nothing happening, then Robin started to feel an intense pain in his head so bad that he was brought to a knee.

"Are you alright?" Frederick asked

"Frederick we have to go b-"but before could get the words out the ground began to shake interrupting his thought.

"An earthquake!?" Frederick said shocked at was going on, then the forest started to caught fire "oh no, we must hurry after them!"

Robin nodded and they ran at full speed into the forest. The entire time they ran Robin's headache only seemed to worsen and when a giant hole opened up in the sky and bodies started to fall from it his vision started to blur and world started to spin for him.

 _I hear screams_ G said

"From where? Is it Linnet and the others? Robin asked with concern

 _No the screams are coming from the west side of the forest_

Robin looked in the direction that G gave him then he turned to Frederick "Frederick I'm going this way, you keep going ahead and find Chrom and the rest"

"Will you be alright on your own, you look as if you're having trouble keeping yourself up as is"

"I'll be fine now go on" and with that Robin headed in the direction G told him he heard the screaming "do you hear anything else this way G?"

 _The sounds of battle, whoever is being attacked is fighting back_

"Well at least that means the person being attacked won't be dead by the time we reach the- Aaah!" another shot of pain ran through his head and with it came a short flash of a memory, this one being a face-off between two armies with a few other caught in the middle "w-what is g-going on?"

G must of felt the pain too cause he didn't respond immediately _whatever it is, it seems to get worse the farther in this forest we go_

Robin continued through the forest fighting the pain as he went. As he did more memories flashed through his mind. Memories of war and death, life and peace, and of great heroes and great villains. One by one they kept flashing in his head as he continued forward until he happened upon a large group of what looked to be soldiers in the distance. Robin was horrified by how wrong he was, for these things had purple skin, leaked some kind of purple mist, and had glowing red eyes. Their bodies moved in an unnatural manner and when Robin came into site they all stared at him, but they didn't attack rather they just stood there as if paralyzed.

"Think they're on our side?" he asked G

 _I doubt it_ he replied back _but if they're willing to let us through then we should take the chance_

"Right" so Robin continued through the soldiers as they made no attempt to impede him and as he got closer he began to hear the battle G mentioned earlier. These things appeared to be attacking two others, one was a girl with dark blue hair dressed in mostly red attacking the enemy with fire magic and the other was a women with green hair dressed in blue and green armor holding these creatures back with a shield and spar. Both of them were exhausted from what Robin could tell, so wasting no more time Robin pulled out his tome and cast expiration on the group that was directly in front of them.

"Huh!?" The girl with blue hair exclaimed shocked at the sudden attack on the enemy forces

"Looks like someone got here in time to pull our butts out of the fire huh?" the girl with green hair commented also relieved to have a break from the combat.

Robin came through slicing away at the soldier that were now attacking him for protecting the two girls and stopped as soon as he joined up with them.

"Are you two alright?" he asked

"Y-yeah, thank you for helping us" the girl with blue hair said

"Don't thank me yet, in case you haven't noticed we're still surrounded"

"He's right and these thing keep comin to, it like there's no end to em" The green haired girl agreed

"So what do we do then" blue haired girl asked not liking their chances

"We've got no other choice" Robin sheathed his falchion and put a hand on his tome "come to me, Urvan!" a giant ax is summoned from his tome and the greened haired girls eyes widened "you with the shield and spear" Robin turned to her.

Breaking out of her shock she replied "Y-yeah?"

"I want you at our back guarding us, okay?"

"Got it"

Then he turned to the blue haired mage "I want you to stay between the two of us and fire on anyone who gets too close, got it?"

She nodded "but what are we about to do?"

Robin gave a shaky smile not really liking the idea himself "We're going to punch a hole through the enemy and pry we don't get hurt too bad along the way"

 _That's the best you could come up with?_ G asked him

"I have no other choice. If this was any other situation I'd say we're screwed but these things don't seem too smart and their attacks seem quite easy to read" with that said Robin starts swinging Urvan at the creature with the other two following right behind him. _This is going to be a tough escape_ he thought.

* * *

 _The Dragon's Table_

Grima stands where the Grima of this time line rest displeased of the events that have transpired today. He had not only failed to instill his will upon his vessel of this timeline, but even with two vessels to corrupt he could not even speak in their minds. It was as if something was protecting them and blocking his influence. Then he could not stop Naga from sending those damned children back in time and was force to give chase, which weakened him significantly on his way through the portal, although he did feel something strange happen to the portal as he went through. Now he sits here at the dragon's table, waiting for the next piece of his plan to wake up.

 _I guess my vessel is_ _only a small fish in a much bigger pond in the grand_ scheme _of things_ Grima thought to himself as he waited.

Slowly a vile power started to come from within the dragon's table. Grima could only smile as he felt whatever was awakening absorb all of the negative energy not only from those trapped within the Table's cursed seal, but from the entire world as well. Then it stopped, the power now all in one point, and whoever claiming it moving towards the exit of the table. The person he came out of the table seemed to be a thin old man dressed in purple robes. He was bold, had shorted pointed ears and long blackened nails and to complete his look he had a short white beard and eyebrowsand piecing red eyes. Grima stood up to greet the still weakened man.

"Why hello, you took your sweet time waking up, didn't you?" he said to the man

He stare at Grima with cold eyes "And who are you?"

Grima smirked "Who I am is not important, however what I offer may catch you interest"

"Proceed then" and with that the start of a plan to end everything began

* * *

 _The Mila Tree_

Tiki was resting in here shrine upon the great Mila Tree when she was awoken by a loud crash that came from outside. When she went to have a look at what disturbed her rest she was shocked to find a young man with red hair asleep in the field on the tree's canopy. When she got closer to him she noticed he was not the only thing out of place there, around the boy was what looked to be 8 different weapons, all of which Tiki felt great power from. The boy himself carried a sword as well that seemed to be much stronger the other weapons lying about.

"Hmm, now where did you come from?" she asked herself staring at the young man.


	4. Chapter 3-What the Future Brings

**_New chapter time! I hope you guys enjoy and I'll come back with another chapter soon(ish)_**

* * *

 _Chapter 3-What the Future Brings_

" _HIYAAA!"_

 _*THWACK*_

" _HIYAA!"_

 _*THWACK*_

" _YAAAA!"_

 _The sound of practice weapons and could be heard hitting against one another as two people practiced in the middle of the mercenary camp._

" _Nice try but…" *WHAP*_

" _AIEEE!" *CLANG* a young Robin hit the dirt as he was knocked back by his mentor, his steel chest plate making him top heavy and lose his balance as he fell flat on his ass after he was pushed back by the powerful blow._

" _That was a good attempt Robin, but you're still moving too slow and your blows aren't powerful enough to have an effect on me"_

" _That's no fair Priam! Not only am I being slowed down by this heavy metal armor" Robin gestured towards the steel gauntlets, boots, and chest plate he was wearing "but I'm also at a disadvantage with my practice axe against your sword, why am learning to wield an axe away?"_

 _It was a question that Robin didn't really have when he first started his training in weapons. He would spar with either his mother or Priam (whomever wasn't training Linnet at the time) in the morning with armor on to limit his speed and add weight to his body to strengthen his muscles. Then after that was done, he would grab a bronze axe and do a set of practice swings to improve his form, but even that became harder as his mother would increase the number of swings he was to complete and make him wield a heavier axe whenever she felt it was becoming too easy for him. Robin had thought that after he received the Falchion that his primary training weapon would switch from axes to swords, but he was both shocked and horrified to discover that his training was only increased by the addition of sword training after his axe training. That combined with his magic training and tactics studies after his weapons training left not only Robin but also Linnet, who suffered a different but just as brutal training hell as him, completely exhausted and sore all over on most days. So now as he was knocked into the dirt for what felt like the umpteenth time today he finally asked the questioned that has been gnawing at him, why?_

" _Sorry kid, but that's a question you're going to have to take up with Rhea…" Priam took a moment to look over the camp, the morning air cooling them off as the sun shone over the forest and the birds sang in the distance "however if I were to guess, she's trying to increase you destructive power with swords by making you wield a heavier and more powerful weapon"_

" _You really think that's the reason?" Robin questioned_

" _you should just be lucky she didn't decide to make you practice with war hammers, now that's a weapon that'll have you sore for week if you aren't used to the weight" Priam chuckled at the thought of the small boy even attempting the idea._

" _That's not funny!" Robin said with a pout "By the way Priam?"_

" _Yeah?"_

" _That giant axe that's buried in the ground in the center of camp, why is there? It looks old but also pretty well kept, I was just curious who does it belong to?_

 _Priam look at the axe in question. It was indeed old, just as cracked as his own Ragnell or Linnet's Alondite, but despite its age it had nary a spot or sign of rust upon it. The morning sun light hitting it almost made the axe look as if it was blessed by the heavens themselves, telling those who would dear draw near it that only those who were worthy could ever think to place their hands on it._

" _Oh that old thing? Has Urvan caught your eye Robin?_

" _Urvan?"_

" _An axe that was wielded by a man named Greil and after by his son Ike, my ancestors"_

" _ **That**_ _ **was used by the radiant hero and his father!?**_ _"_

" _Yep, Ike took it with him after he left Tellius to go around the world or so I heard"_

" _AWW, that's amazing! And to think the only thing it suffered after all these years is a few cracks!"_

 _With that comment and Robin's enthusiasm an Idea popped into Priam's mind and he smirked "Would you like to wield it one day Robin? Urvan I mean"_

" _CAN I REALLY!?" Robin said jumping up off the ground with more energy than he had their entire training session._

" _Of course Urvan can't be wielded by anyone you know? Only those who are truly skilled with the axe has any chance in using her to her full capabilities" Priam said knowing he got his young pupil to take the bait._

" _So I would have to be a master of axes before I could wield Urvan" Robin said with a more serious look painted across his face._

" _So here is the deal, I'll let you wield Urvan one day if you can prove to me that you have indeed master the axe and if you can best me in any of our sparing sessions"_

 _Robin faced Priam, his wooden practice axe at the ready "I'll do it! Not just axes, but the sword, magic and tactics too, I'll master them all and surpass you and mother one day. And after that I'll wield both Urvan and Falchion on the adventure I promised Linnet we would go on"_

 _Priam held his wooden sword at the ready "Now that's what I wanted to hear! You got fire in your eyes now, come at me with everything you have Robin!"_

 _And with yet another battle cry and a second wind pushing him forward Robin attacked once more_

" _HIY-"_

* * *

"-AAAA!" Robin yelled as he cut his way through the undead horde that stood in his way, creating a path for him and the two who were being attacked earlier, Urvan's flawless blade cleaving though the multiple bodies in its way by the handful. The two girls Robin "rescued" were trailing behind him, the spear wielding greenette kept the enemy from attacking them from behind with her shield as the bluenette used her magic to make sure no enemy struck the middle of their formation and broke it. Robin being the head of their little line took the most damage as they made their way through the dense mass of bodies that obscured them. He suffer multiple slashing wounds along his arms and sides, but kept pressing forward despite the pain and thanked the gods that he didn't have to jump over corpses as he kept swinging away with Urvan as the creatures dissipated in a haze of purple smoke. This process went on for what felt like hours, cut, slash, block, push, stab, rush, fire magic and repeat, but soon the three finally made it out of the mess and started running as best as their tired and injured bodies would allow away from the undead crowd.

 _Robin I think it's alright now you can stop and catch your breath_ G told him

"What are you talking about? Didn't you see how many of those things were left?"

 _Listen_

Robin did as G said and began to listen around him. He heard his own feet as he ran and those of the two behind him and….nothing? He didn't hear the sounds of a large group giving chase, all he could hear was the Three of them running away from where they were.

"Hey I think it's alright to stop now" Robin said to the two behind him as he stopped running

"W-what? But there are still so many of the things back there" the bluenette said as she ran past him giving him a confused look

Robin turned around "look"

The two girls stopped and looked back in the direction they came from to see that he was right, they were no longer being chased.

"Did they even chase us after we got past?" Robin thought to himself

"Well if they didn't then we're in luck" The bluenette replied back, relaxing a bit from the lack of danger "Thank you for saving us back there, If it wasn't for you I don't know if we'd be able to make out"

"Your very welcome miss…."

"Lilina, it's very nice to make your acquaintance"

 _That name, isn't it…?_ G questioned

Robin nods "Robin and likewise" he turns to the green haired women who has been strangely quiet for the past few minutes "and you?"

She turned her head away from him in an attempt to avoid his question.

"It's alright I'm sure he won't mind the way you speak" Lilina tried to reassure her.

The spear wielding women looked a bit conflicted as she considered the young mages words, but she eventually gave her reply "The names Nephenee, I ain't much for fancy talk so if the way I talk bothers you any then-"

Robin chuckles a bit "Was that it? Don't worry then, I've spent over half my life with mercenaries, many of whom talked in a similar manner to you. You can speak in any way that feels comfortable with me"

She nods "By the way that axe?"

"Hmm? Oh right, I guess to you this thing just popped out of nowhere" Robin pulls out his tome "When I was younger I created a special kind of dark magic that allows me to store objects inside some of the blank pages of my tome"

"Wow that sounds so cool" Lilina says

"No that's ain't what I meant, that axe belonged to Ike's pa and last I heard it was bein used as his grave marker. What are ya? Some kinda grave looter or did Ike give it to you? I haven't seen him since we defeated the mad king and you seem like a decent fella so I don't wanta assume the worst."

"Grave marker? And you speak of the Radiant hero as if you know him" Robin responded clearly confused

Now it was Nephenee's turn to be confused "Radiant hero? I ain't ever heard anyone call Ike that"

 _Something about these two feel a bit off, doesn't Robin?_ G questioned

"Sorry to interrupt you two, but Robin since you seem to be familiar with this area, you wouldn't happen to know where we are would you?" the bluenette asked

"Wait you have no idea where you are?"

Lilina shook her head "My comrades and I were all fighting to stop a terrible threat and as soon as our goal was within site a blinding light shown over us and when it faded I found myself here"

"I was training in my village when something like that happened to me too" Nephenee said

"You were surrounded in light and brought here? Perhaps teleportation magic then?" Robin wasn't really sure of how to take the information they were giving him, on one hand somebody teleporting the two here in order to have them killed by those things wasn't out of the realm of possibility, but on the other hand the other bits of info they gave made no sense. Lilina spoke of her and her companions fighting against some kind of threat, but if that really was the case and **if** it was truly as bad as she seemed to insinuate it was by her tone when speaking about it then surly Linnet or himself would have heard of such a thing through passing. Then there was Nephenee. Her claim of knowing the radiant hero was completely preposterous, but the confidence she held in making such a claim and the feel of familiarity in her tone in speaking of Ike would have Robin think twice before calling it nonsensical gibberish. Then something else crosses Robin's mind and he's forced out of these thoughts.

"Crap, Linnet and the others!" he shouts running back towards the direction he and Frederick split up from.

"Hey! Where are you headed!?" Nephenee shouts towards the man as he gained some distance from the two.

"I left my companions to come help you two, I need to go check on them! Feel free to follow, we have a healer that can tend to your wounds!" he shouted back as he continued his sprint back.

Lilina and Nephenee looked at each other for a moment before running after him, with neither of them knowing anything about where they were Robin was their safest bet for now.

* * *

As Chrom, Lissa, and Linnet went to investigate the forest near their camp the ground began to tremble and crumble beneath their feet, forcing the trio to run for dear life as the earth split and spewing fire shot out. It was a close call for all of them as they all nearly fell to their death in the quake, but they would get no respite from this as not long after the sky seemed to split open and a giant eye peered through the hole, then what looked to be human bodies started to fall out of the sky from it. After this they started to hear groans from within the forest and what looked to be a soldier emerged to greet them. Chrom and Linnet readied their blades and told Lissa to stand back as the thing that resembled man in only the basic sense charged straight for Chrom and he barely had any time to block its attack, then more showed up and Linnet and Chrom had no choice but to fight them off and protect Lissa as best they could. They found out fast that simple slashes, that were normally enough to take down most others, was not enough to fell the creatures before them and that they had little choice but to resort to certain kill strikes. Linnet and Chrom did their best to take them out as fast as possible, but they were outnumbered and one them did manage to get through and for the second time in the span of a few hours Lissa was once again corned with a blade threatening to end her life.

"Lissa! GET AWAY FROM HER!" Chrom shouted trying to get to his sister but was stopped by another enemy in his way.

"Damn it! Lissa I'm coming! Arg" but Linnet too was stopped by two undead as she tried to come to the young princess' rescue.

Lissa raise her staff to use as a makeshift shield and closed her eyes as she awaited the pain that was soon to come as the thing raised its axe. However before it came someone else dashed out of the eye in the sky and rushed to the princess' aid.

*CLANG* the sound steel hitting steel could be heard just before the thud of bodies fell to the ground as Chrom and Linnet dispatched of their foes and turned to see what become of Lissa.

"HELP!" the masked warrior grunted out as the thing continued to apply more weight on it weapon down on him.

"Right!" Chrom said, not missing a beat as he charged with his blade. The mask warrior manage to push the axe off of him and with a combine strike from both him and Chrom that foe was downed as well.

Linnet let out a sigh of relief and the Lissa face visibly relaxed with the threat ended.

"Quite the entrance, what's your name?" Chrom questioned the mysterious swordsmen

He turned towards him and answered "Marth"

"Like the hero king? Well thank you, you saved my sister's life"

"Yes thank you very much" Lissa said to Marth

Chrom was going to say more to him but the sound of a horse running towards them interrupted him and all four of them turned towards the sound.

"That must be Frederick and Robin coming to our rescue" Linnet commented in a slightly sarcastic tone.

Sure enough Frederick came busting through, his every wary expression adorned on his face albeit with a tinge of worry mixed in.

"Milord, milady are you two alright!?" he asked

"I'm glad to see you care so much Freddy" Linnet commented but Frederick disregarded it, more concerned about his charges.

"We're fine Frederick, **ALL** of us, especially thanks to this man here"

But when they all turned to where Marth stood moments before he was gone.

"Did he just leave?" Chrom questioned

"Anyway my lord, I believe we should relocate, we have no idea how many more of those things there are still are out there"

"What about my brother? Where is he?" Linnet asked

"He said he heard something in a different part of the forest and went to go investigate on his own" Frederick replied.

"With these things around let's pray to Naga that he's okay" Chrom said

"He'll be fine so long as he didn't encounter a horde of them by himself" Linnet says, but it's quite clear she held a bit of worrier for the fate of her twin.

Chrom smiles and nods "I'm sure he's fine, for now let's do as Frederick says and get out of this forest"

After some time of making their way through the forest, fending against any of those things they ran across along the way, the group found their selves in a clearing close to a small fort. Chrom, Linnet and Frederick all prepared to do away with the enemy that gave chance after them when…

*Thwip* an arrow came whooshing by, imbedding itself right between the eyes of one of them.

"THUNDER!"

"FIRE!"

Then two blast of magic coming from another direction hit two more ending them and in the distance the group saw Robin and two others heading towards them.

After that a women atop a house with in a set of red cavalier armor and a man rider behind her came galloping through and impaled one on the tip of her spare.

"Captain Chrom!" The rider shouted trying to kick her passenger off.

"It's nice to see you caught up Sully" he replied back to her "and who is this?"

"Virion!?" Linnet shouted in surprise

"Ah! Lad-" Virion started to speak but Linnet swiftly put a hand to his mouth.

"Do you know this man Linnet?" Chrom asked

"Kind of" she said giving him a nervous chuckle "um can you excuse us real quick?"

"Umm sure?"

And with that Linnet headed in the direction her brother and his group was coming from.

"Hey guys are you alrigh-" Robin was cut off by his sister dragging him away too.

"You're coming with me now!"

"Alright? Wait, IS THAT VIRION!?" he said noticing the other man being dragged along with him as the rest of the group gave them a confused look.

After the three got out of earshot of the others Linnet took her hand of Virion's mouth.

"Ah Lady Linnet, it is good to see your as lovely as always and sir Robin are you still breaking the hearts of young maidens everywhere you travel?"

Robin simple raised an eyebrow to that comment and asked "Virion why are you here?"

Virion smiled "I came to Ylisse on vacation away from Rossane, I was hoping to meet some lovely ladies while I was here as well and then I met the beautiful Sully and was instantly enamored"

"Then you started flirting with her the moment she caught your eye, right?" Linnet sighed "You know Cherche is going to feed you to Minerva one of these days if you keep this up"

"Now now, Cherche would never attempt such a thing" Virion said with a laugh.

"Really?" the twins said in unison.

"Well…" Virion adjusted his ascot and rethought on the possibility with a nervous chuckle.

"How is the situation in Valm?" Robin asked the duke

Virion let out a small sigh "Stable, for now. Although I fear to tell you that Walhart has been making some questionable move as of late and that the stability may not last for long"

"After we beat him in into the dirt, I thought he would give up on that idea of his" Linnet replied

"It would seem he has found another way to gain the support he needs to amass is his troops after you two proofed him to be fallible in your dual with him, though what methods that may be is still elusive to me"

They wanted to ask Virion a bit more about the situation in Valm, but it would have to wait as Chrom shouted "IN COMING" alarming the three of more purple undead things approaching them. The three of them ran back to the rest of the group and prepared for the next battle with the horde of zombies.

* * *

At the Dragon's Table, signs of a conflict are visible across the land surround it as Grima is be held up by his neck by the man dressed in the purple robes.

"So…I guess we're at….. an impasse then?" Grima says in a gasped voiced while smirking at him.

The man stares at Grima with his piecing red eyes, tightening the grip around Grima's neck, his long black nails piecing his skin and drawing blood as he does.

"I am no pawn in your game Grima and I refuse to act as one" the man coldly told the fell dragon.

Grima simply laughs at his words as he stares into his red eyes with his own.

"The instant you appeared on the board you became a pawn in my game shadow dragon" then he gave him a dark smirk "Whether you work with me or not it matters not to me, I'll use you as I see fit. However…If you comply and work with me, then you may find the opportunity to do the same, after all I'm a piece on this board to and can be moved like any other"

At first the man just stared at him, his grip on his throat unwavering, but he soon let loose his fingers around his neck and let Grima fall to the ground.

"I being your pawn doesn't sound tempting, but you being mine now that I can work with. Very well Grima I'll comply…for now.

 _That's one down_ Grima thought to himself as he collected himself and began to walk towards another direction.

"Good now follow me, we have more piece to collect"

"Like who" he replied reluctantly walking along with him

"For starters, a soulless puppet who has lost her master and now requires someone else to pull her strings"


	5. To Meet Royalty and the Caged Birds

**hey guys as promised another new chapter and it didn't take long did it? The caged bird part of this chapter that is in it's title is actually a Diary entry that I highly suggest you play sad music to when you read it. for me it was Kujikesou ni naru watashi wo sasaete kudasai on loop. I know it's a** **ridiculously long name for a song, but if you watched your lie in april I think you'll enjoy it** or you can just pick whatever you. like it's up to you. Whatever. **As always enjoy**

* * *

Chapter 4- To Meet Royalty and the caged bird

The next wave of enemies wasn't too hard to be rid of, with everyone together to cover one another and wipe them out. After having Linnet and Lissa heal everyone after the battle Frederick thought it wise to march straight to Ylisstol in lieu of any more unforeseen combat and to warn the exalt of this new threat. So now the group were now back on the road heading to their next destination, during this time Lissa was complaining to brother about her legs being tired with Frederick riding next to them, Sully was trying to have a conversation with Linnet; who she was very impressed with in the fight while also trying to stop Virion's advances, and Robin was currently speaking to both Lilina and Nephenee to continue their conversation from earlier out of earshot from the rest of their traveling companions.

"Putting aside personally knowing Ike I take it that you're from the continent of Tellius, right Nephenee?" Robin asked the Greenette.

"That's right, why? Am I far off from home or something?"

"Far off is an understatement, your currently half way around the world!"

"No way…H-how is that possible!?" she asked, a bit taken aback by the knowledge given to her

"I don't know, but if you were indeed teleported here to Ylisse it would have taken an immense amount of power to pull off"

"Tellius? Ylisse? I'm sorry but I've never heard of these places before, they must be quite a ways away from Elibe if that's the case" Lilina added to the discussion.

"Elibe…?" _Now why does that name sound so familiar?_ Robin thought

"Have you heard of it?" Lilina asked.

"Perhaps…" Robin gave it a little more thought before he continued "but for now I need the two of you to do me a favor"

"Whatcha need?" Nephenee asked.

"About everything we discussed so far I want you to keep it between the three of us" Robin requested

"Why's that?"

"Because I doubt anyone else will have an answer to any of the questions you're asking" he said matter of factly "Fret not I will personally look into everything you two have told me when we reach Ylisstol, so for now keep all that we've talked about to your selves and I'll see if I can't get you the answers you want"

They both looked skeptical at first, but since Robin was willing to at least look into what they've told him and they had no knowledge of the place they were now in, they both decided it was for the best and agreed with him.

"Thank you for being so understanding you two, now if you'll excuse me I have an old friend to catch up with" and with that Robin left the two women and made his way up to Virion.

"Are you sure about this G?" Robin asked.

 _I'm quite sure, something about those two are off and it would be best to keep the info they gave us from the others for now_ G responded.

"You don't suspect them to be enemies do you? They would need to come up with more believable lies if that was the case.

 _No, In fact I believe everything they've said._

"Oh! Is that so?"

 _Call it a feeling, but I can sense it in my very being and it's because of this that we should keep them from saying anything from the others….for now at least_

"Gotcha, speaking of keeping others quiet…Virion!" Robin called out to the self-proclaimed archest of archers and motioned him over to his side.

"How may I help Robin or should I be calling you lord Robin now?" Virion asked

"That's actually what I wanted to discuss" Robin started "please reframe from using that title around others; that was something the people of Valm decided for both Linnet and myself upon learning of our heritage and we have not once used it since it was given"

Virion smiled to his friend "But of course my friend, however regardless of if I speak of you in such a way or not; I believe you grossly underestimate your reputation, even if you two aren't widely known as lords of Valm your other moniker is widely known throughout even here in Ylisse"

"I know, even still if people are to know I would rather Linnet or I be the ones to inform them" Robin said smiling back to the man.

"But of course and as for the situation in Valm?"

"You can talk about it more now if you wish, however it might be more appropriate if we wait until we reach the capital"

Virion nodded in agreement and with that the rest of the trip to Ylistrol was spent with the two discussing what they have been up to since they last met.

Upon reaching Ylisstol Robin and Linnet were both a bit in awe. This was their first time to the Ylissian capital and to say it was busy didn't do it justice, the place was bustling. It was much like Ferox in that way with the number of people about and the many stalls open, minus their being a mercenary to greet every five steps you took. Lilina and Nephenee were also taking in the site as well albeit with a lot more surprise then the twins. As the group walked in the towns' people cheered for the return of their prince and princess.

"This place looks amazing" Linnet commented

"Your right, it's very beautiful here" Lilina added

"I'm glad you two think so, Ylisstol is always lively and you'll find that her people are quite welcoming as well"

Then the crowd began to turn their attention elsewhere, specifically to a women in long green and white robes greeting the civilians while she was guarded by Pegasus knights.

"So that's Exalt Emmeryn, she seems truly loved by her people" Robin said.

"Indeed" Chrom agreed "She never gave up on her people even with how they treated her in the beginning. She took all the hatred and malice that she received because of the actions of the previous Exalt and gave her people kindness and caring in return"

"She's also the BEST big sister in the WHOLE world" Lissa proclaimed

"You two really admire her huh?" Linnet asked.

"Of course, I try to follow her example as best I can" Chrom then noticed that his sister and her guard were heading back to the palace "Looks like she's heading back, why don't we introduce you guys to her"

"Sorry but I ain't interested, hanging around a bunch of castle breds doesn't sound all that fun" Nephenee stated.

"I think it is for the best if I too decline your offer, my apologies" Lilina added as well, figuring that if she were to tag along more questions would be asked of her and that was exactly what Robin requested she try to avoid.

"If that's the case why don't you follow me to the garrison, I'm sure we could all do with a little rest after moving all night" Sully offered.

The two nodded in agreement and with everyone's new destinations set the group split up and headed off towards their respective locations.

* * *

Chrom, Lissa, Frederick, Robin, and Linnet entered the palace and made their way to the throne room to meet with the Exalt. While they made their way through the guards were eyeing the twins with suspective glares and prepared their selves in case they needed to move into action. Upon entering the throne room it was the young Princess who greeted her sister first.

"EEEMMMMM!" Lissa shrieked as she ran up to her sister and gave her a huge.

Emmeryn returned the hug "It's good to see you again Lissa and in such high spirits no less. How was your journey to the border Chrom? Little trouble I hope"

"It was fine, though Southtown was attacked, we were able to rescue everyone with no casualties and minimal injuries"

"This is my fault your grace; I should have more Pegasus knight's manning the boarder" said a women standing beside the Exalt, she had blue hair tied up into a bun and red eyes.

"It's alright Phila, these things happen, though I wish they would not" Then Emmeryn took notice of the two guest she had in her throne room and her eyes widened ever so slightly before she regained her composer "It would seem you've have brought some interesting guest along with you as well Chrom"

Chrom noticing the slight familiarity she held in her tone asked "Do you know these two Emm?"

"Not personally, no, but they are quite famous"

"They are!?" Lissa asked.

"Wait did you not know who they were before bringing them here?" her question was quickly answered with a shift shake of both of their heads "That is truly surprising, especially since just like you Chrom, one of them bears a fang of Naga"

"WHAT!?" Chrom stated completely shocked and wasn't the only one, The soldier who were all on guard at the twin presents went wide eyed, Lissa jaw had dropped and even Frederick and Phila was taken aback at the news.

Sensing that the cat was literally being let out of the metaphorical bag Robin and Linnet walked forward a little closer to the Exalt. Robin unhooking his Falchion from his belt as he did put everyone but the Exalt herself in a state of unease, but he ignored their reaction to his actions and placed the tip of the sheathed blade on the ground holding it up right with his left hand upon its grip, the crossed star shaped mark on his left hand glowing as he did.

"It's an honor to meet you your grace" the twins said blowing their heads slightly has they did.

"As to you as well, Lords Robin and Linnet of Valm" Emmeryn Greeted back.

"Lords!? You two are royals?" Chrom asked.

Robin scratched the side of his head and gave the prince an awkward look "Umm….Kind of….Ha ha…ha"

"Why didn't tell us!?" Lissa asked recovering from her initial shock.

"You never asked" Linnet answered back "and now seeing your reaction I'm kind of glad you didn't"

"Milady if I may be so bold, who are these two? They have told us next to nothing about their origins" Frederick finally spoke up.

"They are the direct decedents of Alm and Celica, the first rulers of the Empire of Valentia" Emmeryn answered the knight.

"REALLY!?" Lissa shouted.

"Wow, to think you're related to the legendary heroes of Valm, that's amazing" Chrom stated

"This coming from the man who is a decedent of the legendary Hero King himself" Robin said back to him with a slight smirk.

He put a hand to the back of his head "Ha ha good point, so that sword is?"

"Like yours it bears the name of Falchion as well, although that could be a bit confusing so for now we can just call my sword what the old gods of Valentia used to "The King's Fang""

"So it is another one of Naga's fangs" Lissa took a closer look at the blade then turn her attention to the glowing mark on Robin's hand "What about that?"

Robin let his blade lean against his chest as he undid the ties on his wrist brace "just a birth mark" he replied with a grin.

"Yeah right" Lissa said with a giggle.

"What of you Linnet, your blade isn't just a normal long sword is it?" Chrom turned to her and asked.

"My blade is actually the sister sword of the Ragnell, the weapon used by the Radiant Hero. Apparently at some point Ike's ancestors gifted the sword to our family"

"So cool" Lissa gushed.

"Emm how did you hear of these two? No meeting I've attended has mentioned them" Chrom asked his sister.

"That is where you're wrong Chrom, we've been getting info on these two for well over three years now"

"We have?"

"Yes, although I guess they're better well known as-"

"How about we stop it right here for now" Linnet interrupted "We aren't really found of that name nor do we even like our title of lords. You can just call us by our names if that is alright"

"Ow…very well then, is okay if I ask you to do the same for me then?"

"But of course Emmeryn"

"So then Chrom, why have you brought these two here then?" the Exalt asked her brother.

"Right! Well Robin and Linnet along with three others have decided to join the Shepherds, In fact I actually asked Robin to be our new tactician, of course that was before I knew all of this" he said with a nervous laugh

"You should have seem them Emm, the both fight using swords and magic it's amazing" Lissa added.

"I have to admit if not for them we might have been in trouble" Frederick spoke up as well.

Emmeryn closed her eyes for a bit taking in what they've all said "Chrom, do you trust them?"

"With my life, they not only came to our aid, but that of the people of Ylisse as well" He answered.

She nodded "Then they have mine as well, but now I'm curious what brings the both of you to Ylisse in the first place?"

The twin's expressions turned sour and then Robin spoke "we here to look into a group that attacked our home six years ago, we fear we may have connection with them in some way"

"The Grimleal" Frederick stated and the twins turned to look at the knight with widened eyes "Robin, you carrier a tome that holds the visage of the fell dragon upon it, correct? Knowing that I figured you two had something to do with them and was planning to have you taken away for questioning upon our arrival. However after hearing all this I can now see my assumption was somewhat inaccurate"

Robin pulled out the tome in question "Inaccurate in the sense that we are possible members yes, however…" Robin dropped the tome and it swiftly burned away in a ball of blue flames before reappearing in his hand "to say we aren't involved would be a lie, though how we are connected is something I cannot tell you" Linnet gave her brother a look saying that he already revealed too much.

"Can you truly not tell us or are you willingly withholding that knowledge?" Frederick narrowed his eyes at the man.

"I'll let you make that assumption for yourself, but to be perfectly honest I had intended to leave such a topic for another day"

"That is alright" Chrom chimed in.

"Huh?"

"Milord?"

"After our first battle in Southtown you said you appreciated that I simply judged you solely on your actions and so far the actions that both of you have shown me have given me no reasons to doubt you. So if this is a topic that you wish to avoid at the moment then I will respect your wishes and drop it so long as you tell me one day"

"Looks like we found ourselves a good employer, too bad his help is a little wanting at times" Linnet said with a smile.

"It looks like business here is about concluded then, your grace we should prepare to go to the council soon and discuss these recent reports about creatures attacking" Philia stated then turned to Chrom "Milord will be joining as well?"

"Yes, I have a bad feeling we have encountered the very creatures that you just mentioned"

"I see then we should be off then" Emmeryn sat up from her chair "once again it was very nice to meet the two of you Robin, Linnet" and with that Chrom, Emmeryn, Frederick, and Philia left the room.

Lissa then grabbed the both of them by their arms "C'mon, I'll show you where the shepherd's garrison is" and with that the princess dragged the two off.

* * *

Opening the door to the Shepherd's garrison the three were greeted to…

"Lissa my treasure! Are you alright? I've been on pins and needles!" what looked to be a blonde girl in a pink troubadour outfit who almost instantly tackled the princess upon their entry. She wore her hair in what looked to be drills that was held up by two bows and was carrying a pink parasol.

"Oh hey Maribelle" Lissa who seemed to be used to this type of reaction from the blonde greeted her friend by smiling and returning the embrace.

"Oh hey' yourself!" the women now revealed to be Maribelle "I've sprouted fourteen grey hairs fretting over you!"

 _Did she really count her hair?_ Was G's response to that comment.

"It's alright, I can handle my fair share of battles" Lissa stated

"It's good to see you've come back okay Lissa" said a girl with Light brown hair who was farther in the garrison spoke up "Ummm, where is captain Chrom? He didn't get injured did he?"

"Awww, are you worried about Chrom, Sumia? That's SOOO cute" Lissa tease the women

"W-w-well, he's our captain and prince after all, so of course I'd worry" Sumia replied back clearly flustered.

"Well you don't need to, my brother is just at a council meeting at the moment"

"By the way who are the two newbies?" a tanned muscular man with blonde hair asked

"Oh, I almost forgot" Lissa step aside and put her arms up as if presenting the twins to the others "This Robin and Linnet, starting today they are a part of the Shepherds"

"Oooh, more recruits huh? Looks like Ol' Teach has a whole class of new students to show the ropes"

"Teach?" Linnet questioned

"Just ignore him, if you try to think too hard about every little thing he says you'll only end up giving yourself a headache" Lissa told her

"Hey!"

"Well it's nice to meet you all" Linnet greeted

"A pleasure" robin did as well

"Robin here has actually been appointed our new tactician" the princess said pointing to him.

"Oh, a tactician, but isn't that a sword strapped to his waist?" Sumia asked.

"That's what makes them amazing, they both use swords AND magic. You should of seen them it was so cool"

"Oh yeah, can they do….this?" Vaike said before a let out a loud burp.

Everyone had a different reaction to what the man just did. Sumia's face went red, Lissa looked as if she wanted to laugh but was holding it in, Maribelle was absolutely mortified, and the Robin and Linnet didn't really have a face for such an action.

"By the way Vaike these two are actually Royals from Valm" the princess cued the man in and upon hearing this Maribelle yanked Vaike by the ear and gave him a death glare.

"Look at what you've done you buffoon, you've gone and ruined the shepherds image in front of royalty"

"Ow ow ow ow, hey how was the Vaike supposed to know?"

"Not another word out of you, you lowborn cure" Maribelle then turned her attention too Robin and Linnet "apologies for this man behavior, it would seem he was not taught properly"

"That is quiet alright, we ac-" But Linnet was cut off when the door to the Garrison opened and Chrom and Frederick stepped through

In her excitement over seeing Chrom Sumia, rushed up to meet him, only to trip after her first step. From everyone reactions the twins gathered that this was nothing new.

"You alright Sumia?" Chrom asked her a little concerned "your boots again?"

"Yes, I mean no, I mean….I'm fine sir" Sumia said letting out a sigh of defeat.

Linnet whispered to her bother "poor girl"

"You can say that again"

"Well anyway everyone pack up, were heading to Regna Ferox to ask for additional soldiers in helping to fight off these Risen" Chrom told everyone.

"Risen? Please tell me that isn't what you decided to name those things" Linnet said putting a hand to her forehead.

"It's what the council decided on not me"

"I don't know, I think it has quite a ring to it" The greenette told his sister.

"Or we can just call them zombies like normal people" she said back to him

"In any case we are leaving tomorrow, however this mission is strictly voluntary. So if an-"

Before he could even finish almost everyone shouted they would go.

"I'm sorry I must return home so I won't be able to join" Maribelle informed Chrom who gave her an Understanding nod

"Alright, Vaike can you tell the others who currently are not here right now of this and see if they'll join as well?"

"Just leave it to teach"

"Good, and Robin I'll leave it to you to tell Lilina and Nephenee about this since they seem to get along with you the best, speaking of where are they"

"The other new recruits are in the rooms we've given them resting captain" Sumia told him.

"I see, well that's all for now" Chrom was about to take his leave when a hand on his shoulder stopped him

"Chrom do you possibly have a Library here?" Robin asked

He nodded "yes we do, would you like me to show you to it?"

"Yes, there is something I would like to look up if that is alright"

"Then follow me"

"Wait before you two head off" Linnet stopped them "Robin is it alright if I hold on to "that"? It's been some time since I got to read through it last"

He nodded and took out his tome again, then he summoned another book from its pages just like he did with Urvan the night prior.

"You know you can always keep mom's diary if you want, instead of always giving it to me to hold" he told her handing it to her.

She took it from him "No way, with all the fights we manage to find ourselves in its better off safe in your tome then in with me"

"Fair enough" he said and with that he disappeared with Chrom heading back towards the palace.

* * *

Later that night Linnet was in one of the rooms given to her and Robin in the palace as guests. She was lying on the bed staring up at the book she was holding in her hands. It was precious to both her and Robin, for it was one of the only things they had left of their mother. Although she could argue she cared for it much more considering it was one of the few things that prevented her from having nightmares of the accursed event that took place just a few years ago. She flipped through the pages, trying to see from where she should start to read this time, but ultimately decided to just start from the beginning when her mother started writing in it.

 _Dear diary_

 _This is the most wondrous day of my life._

 _Or at least I wish I could say that. Today I gave birth to two beautiful children, a boy and a girl, whom I see as my light in this hellish darkness I've found myself in. It's funny, I never thought I wanted children, but when they came they instantly became my whole world. But now my light is dimming, my world crumbling as I hear their screams of agony. That man! The man who is supposed to be their father, who is supposed to care for them as much as I! He puts my babies through his accursed ritual, all to see if they're are fit for his god. He cares not for them or me, only for a being that is meant to bring ruin to this world. Now I lay here in my room, recovering from giving birth, my tire body wanting no more then to rest, but I can't. I Hear the Cries unending, each and every scream breaking my heart farther. When will it end? When will they stop torturing them? Why them? Why did it have to be him!? WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE THEIR FATHER!? All of these questions whirling around in my head as I curse myself for their fate. Oh how wish to hold them in my arms. To quell their screams. To ease their pain. To show them the love that they are so wrongfully being denied. I need to get them away, to separate them from the cult as quickly as possible, and to make sure that his poison never infects them. When I'm fully recovered I intend to leave. Leave and take them with me. Leave and never look back. But I know him and his obsession. He will follow. He will search the ends of the earth for what he claims is his. But when he does I'll be ready, ready to end his life if need be. It's sad now that I think about it, all this time he has fed me lies. The only good things given me are them and the right to name them._

 _Robin and Linnet the caged birds, I will set you free._

Linnet was a sleep tears streaming down her face as she dreamed of the warm memories she had of her mother and thought of the sacrifices she made to protect them.

* * *

 **So I'm sorry to those who were hoping to get more Lilina or Nephenee in this chapter but...don't worry you'll get more of them eventually. I also apologize if you find this chapter to be a little boring, I can only do so much when it comes to introducing the shepherds that Robin and Linnet meet outside of combat situations because there isn't much room for me to add my own spin to it in situations like that. Expect the story to be vastly different from it's game counter part in the next chapter since the two have already been to Ferox. Also if you would like to feel free to leave me a PM or review, I'm actually kinda stuck on what I should name Robin's tome and some suggestions would be nice. Also for those who are curious I made the cover art for this story myself and I'll probably change it every time we enter what I consider to be a new arc for this fanfic.**


	6. Chapter 5-Few Answers, More Questions

**Here is a new Chapter, I was originally going to take us to Regna Ferox with this one but it was getting to long so I decided to cut it in half and add something else to the end to cap it off. As always I hope you enjoy**

* * *

Chapter 5-Few Answers, More Questions

For Robin, much of last night was spent researching. He had come to the Library to re-educate himself in the art of army tactics, since for over five years it's only been Linnet and himself he's had to keep alive. Although the Shepherds were a far cry from an actual army, they were still more people then Robin was comfortable commanding into battle without dusting off the cobwebs that had formed in his tactical mind from lack of adequate practice. That however was only about what one third of his time there was spent on, since, although he had not had the chance to work in larger groups such as this, he still had spent much of his life studying army warfare when he was younger and only required a short refresher on the topic. No, what his time went into was looking up the information that the two oddities he rescued gave him, and what he found out left the man racking his brain at what he had discovered.

Robin decided to look into the history of Tellius first, since Tellius was an actual place Robin had heard of and knew full well existed. He wasn't going in completely blind on this front since he had read many tales about the Radiant Hero and the wars that happened there long ago. Also, besides Priam who they were sure had never even been there before, he and his sister had somewhat of a personal connection with someone who was greatly involved with the continent itself. Robin's focus when looking into this was on the conflicts that happened during Ike's time, specifically with those who fought on Ike's side during those conflicts. People like Mist, who was Ike's sister and Titania who acted as his and his fathers trusted adviser, names popped up often. There was also Ranulf, Caineghis, and Skrimir that the book Robin read from referred to as Laguz that shapeshift into different types of animals not unlike the Tanguel that live here do, which allied their forces with Ikes'. Of course there was also Soren, one of Ike's friends who ended up traveling with Ike as he journeyed around the world. However among all the names Robin read in his search one finally jumped outed at him, one that made him blink several times and even close and re-open the tome he was reading to make sure he was seeing things right. Nephenee was indeed the name of one of Ike's comrades, ever her description in the history book he was looking through match the Nephenee who was now with them to a T. A beautiful women with long Green hair, who wore blue and Green armor and brandished a shield and spear in combat. This brought up a number of possibilities but only two truly stood out to Robin. Either the Nephenee that they are with now is really into the character she is trying to portray or Nephenee was not only teleported to Ylisse, but moved through time itself as well. Then there was something else that Nephenee said that jolted back to him, she claimed she never heard Ike be called the Radiant Hero before.

"This is gonna sound crazy, but if she is indeed from the past and she hasn't heard the Term "Radiant Hero" used at all then that would mean she was pulled here before Ike's final battel with Ashera." Robin said to himself.

 _You say it sounds crazy but aren't you supposed to be the vessel to some dark dragon god that is meant to bring ruin to the world?_ G asked.

"Hey! That's more possible then time travel, Loptyr was prove of that."

 _Well the way I see it, it looks like she was pulled to this world during the time of peace that followed after the Mad King's War._

"So we're just going to go along with this and say she's telling us the truth?"

 _Like I said I believe every word that they've told us, speaking of, have you looked for anything that remotely relates to what Lilina said?_

Robin closed the tome he was reading, sighed and let his head rest atop it.

"I asked the Librarian if they had anything on this Elibe place, but she gave me a strange look before finally recalling a book that was so old and damaged that it had to be taken out of the Library to be rewritten before its contents were lost for good. She said it would be about a month before the new copy was put back in the library, but what she said after that worried me."

 _What did she say?_

Robin began to let his eyes close, his lack of sleep finally catching up.

"She said it was a book of fairytales, something to be read to children, a work of fiction."

 _Is that right? That's strange those memories we were having seemed so real._

Then his eyes shot open "That's right!" he remembered the memories from earlier "You mentioned the name Elibe when we looked at those memories earlier, is that where they came from? Do you perhaps remember a bit more about yourself?"

 _No, but the girls name along with the name of the land from which she hails struck a chord in me_

"Lilina? Like the name Mark told Hector he should name his….child should she *yawn* be a girl….."

Robin's words drift off as sleep finally claimed him.

 _I wish I could help more Robin, but my memory is hazy and scattered. I have more questions about myself then you do, but there is one thing I do know and that is…I should not exist. But so long as I'm here I will aid you as best I can, at least that's what I feel I must do._

… _.._

*nudge* "umm excuse me" a soft voice called out to the man laying at the table.

"Mmm" *grumbled breath*

*nudge nudge* "you really shouldn't sleep here, you know" it spoke again, a hint of playful tone mixed in.

"Huh? Wha?"

Robin began to stir from his slumber, vision hazy as he slowly opened his eyes to see who was waking him. The first thing he saw was pale blue eyes that looked back at his own; they were calm, yet warm at the same time and held a bit of curiosity at the man they looked at. Next to fill his few was flowing golden hair that seemed to compliment the blue eyes nicely, it also accented the soft features of her face that began to become less fussy as his vision started to focus. There sitting across from him at his table was the Exalt herself, Emmeryn. She was trying to stifle a giggle looking at the man's drowsy face, her very visage seemingly brightening the whole room.

"Rather sleep on a hard dusty tome than the soft pillow and bed we gave you I see" she said jokingly

Robin picked his head up before addressing the women in front of him "Emmeryn? Is it morning already?" Robin looked up to the window to see it was still dark outside.

"Not quite, but the sun should rise soon" she answered.

Robin looked back to her "Then might I ask, what brings you here at such an hour?"

"I often come to the library to read in the morning just as the birds begin to sing" she looked around the room, her face looking similar to the way it did when Chrom and Lissa returned yesterday, relaxed.

"I see, then I suppose you're quite the avid reader then"

"Indeed, I dare say I've read every book in this library" she replied, a bit more happily then she may have intended.

" **Every** **book?** I must say if that's true then that's quite the feet" Robin said with surprise at what she told him. This was no small library, it was a large archive packed full of books and it wouldn't be hard to get lost in such a place; something Robin discovered for himself not to long after being in there.

"You'll be shocked at what you'd do when you don't have anything else to occupy your time. My job as Exalt may keep me busy, but it only last for so long, so when I get the chance to I read in my free time or anytime I can really."

"Do you not have friends you can talk to when you're not working? Phila perhaps?"

"Although I do consider Phila to be a dear friend, when she isn't looking after me she is off training the Pegasus knights and my position makes it hard for me to make friends outside the castle."

Robin stared at her for a bit before he spoke "You're strange you know that?"

"Huh?" she looked at him confused.

"What you just said what be depressing for anyone else to go through and yet the aura you give off feels so at peace."

"My aura?"

"It's something my master taught me and Linnet long ago. Aura is like the energy others give off and it helps us determine what a person is like before we even speak to them or how they may act in battle before any weapons are swung. In this instance your aura is warm and caring, as if seeking peace in everything and looking to help those in need, but it's also lased with a bit of sadness for both your people and your own situation. You're not completely at peace with were you are, but it's a burden that you carry on your shoulders to make sure your people live in peace"

She was at a loss for words. She was used to holding an expression that showed little to none of her truer emotions in front of people who had not gained her utmost trust, emotions that only Chrom, Lissa, and Phila would typically see, and even then only rarely would she allow herself to do so in their presence. So for someone to be able to read her so easily just with a glance left her paralyzed for a moment.

Seeing this Robin quickly added more to his previous statement "My apologizes, I'm so used to doing this in combat, that reading people's aura is something I do passively now. I'll try to avoid doing so in the future."

She smiled "It's alright, it's actually kind of refreshing to have someone who can see past the face I've created for myself" she reassured him, but her face grew concerned afterwards "Though if this became a habit that you developed through combat then I can only imagine how much conflict you must have been through"

I small smile appeared on his face at the words "Thank you for your concern, I can tell it's genuine, a trait that you and Chrom share in spades"

"Is that why you chose to join the Shepherds as its new tactician?"

Robin stood up from his seat "I guess you can say that's part of the reason why"

"Are you leaving?"

"Yes, since it's so early I might as well get so training in before we depart for Ferox"

"I see, I wish you luck in your endeavor then"

"Thank you" He start to make his exit but stopped and turned on his heel "and don't worry I promise to keep your siblings along with everyone else safe"

Emmeryn smiled "please do"

And with that Robin made his way to the training grounds. It didn't take Robin long to get to the place he was trying to reach and as soon as he got there he set up several training dummies and picked out a few practice axes and swords so he could begin. He was by himself for about an hour until the ever stoic face of a certain knight appeared at the training grounds.

"Ah Frederick, come to get some training in as well?" he greeted

Frederick looked around the man and saw all the broken practice gear, wooden dummies, swords and axes strewn about the grounds.

"I see you've been busy" Frederick said with a bit of surprise, normally he was the first one here at any given point in time"

"Not really, just going through my normal routine"

"Normal? I thought you specialized in magic and the sword, yet I see a bunch of wooden axes in the mix as well"

"When I first started training my primary weapon was the axe, I even still carry an axe with me to my battles"

"Do you now?" Frederick asked "I didn't see one on your person"

"That's because it's not meant to be seen, it's something that I use when the situation calls for it or when I wish to catch my enemies unawares, but I'm sure you'll see it in time as we will be working together."

Frederick nodded at this and prepared to start his own training.

"Hey, if you don't mind, would you like to train together?" Robin asked him.

"I have no problem with you joining, just know that my training regimen is not for the faint of heart"

"Oh I'm sure I can handle it, besides it'll be a good bonding experience" Robin said back to him in confidence

"Very well, let's not waste any more time then"

With that Frederick added one more to his standard 'Frederick's fanatical fitness hour'

….

Chrom made his way to the practice field hoping to get some training in before the Shepherd's departure to Regna Ferox. The morning sun was just coming over head as Chrom got to the empty field. _Wait, empty?_ Chrom thought to himself as he noticed the absence of a certain knight, who normally was here before anyone else was nowhere to be seen, a fact that was so bazar that Chrom almost thought his knight may have come down with something. As he got closer to the sparing pits a voice called out to him.

"What's with that face your making?"

Chrom turned to see Linnet sitting on a bench righting into a book.

"Good morning, I do hope you had a nice rest"

"I did, thanks for the room by the way."

"Your welcome….you wouldn't have happened to see Frederick around would you? It's kind of odd to not see him here training before anyone else."

"You just missed him, he and my brother went for a jog about ten minutes ago" she answered still scribbling away inside her book.

"A jog!? May Naga bless him, I hope Robin knows what he's gotten himself into."

"I sure he's fine"

"So what are you writing?"

She looked away from the book to make eye contact with him.

"I'm making a Lightning tome, since we have sometime before we leave I thought I might as well restock up on my spells"

"You make your own magic tomes?" he asked "wouldn't it be easy to buy them?"

"Do you know how rare light magic tomes are? They are scarcely used here and next to no shops sell them."

"Is that so? Well I have no talent in magic so I guess I never really looked into such things"

Chrom made his way to the weapons rack and grabbed a wooden sword

"Hey wanna go a few rounds?" he asked

She smiled and placed the tome down on the bench "why not, I wanted to see more of your fighting style anyway"

She walked over and grabbed a practice sword as well. Both of them got into the pit and took their stances, Linnet's legs were apart and slightly bent, she raised her sword with her right arm and let her left arm hang low and slightly stretched in front of her. Chrom raise his sword as well, its point aimed forward as he held it in a two handed grip. For the first few moments they both stood there watching each other, then they both rushed in and swung their swords. Chrom came in with a two armed swing of is sword while Linnet matched it with a one armed swing from her own; their blades clashed and they were stuck in a sword lock.

 _Incredible, she can match my strength with one arm._

They stayed locked there looking at each other, neither one giving and inch. Then they pushed each other off and re-readying their selves for the next strike. Chrom charged back in with a flurry of blows, but Linnet match each strike with a block or parry; the sound of wood beating against each other reverberating through the air as they did. Then linnet jumped away from a strike aimed at her stomach and changed her stance, lifting her left arm up and resting the flat of her sword on her forearm. Chrom came in with a stab at her shoulder but she dodged it and swung for his neck which Chrom side stepped out of the way of. This back and forth went on for some time until Chrom went in for an overhead swing and brought his weapon down towards the top of her head. Linnet raised her sword to stop the attack and once again they were locked in.

"I think I've said it before but you're good" Chrom told her.

"You're not too bad yourself" she said back "however…."

Linnet then gripped the handle of her weapon with her other hand and with sheer power forced him off of her which in turn left the man wide open. Then she punched him in the gut with a left jab knocking the wind out of him, which made him loosen his grip on his sword and drop it. After that she swiftly moved to his side and kicked one of his legs from up under him while at the same time bringing the butt of her practice weapon to his chest knocking him down. As Chrom lay their Linnet brought the point of her sword or at least where the point used to be since both of their practice weapons broke in that last exchange to his neck.

"Looks like it's my win" she said to him.

"Oww…yeah it would seem so"

"Here" she reached her hand out to help him up.

"Thanks" he took her hand and stood up again.

"wanna go a few more?" she asked with a smile.

"Of course! I'm not taking that loss going down." He replied smiling back.

"Just what I like to hear"

Chrom and Linnet grabbed new practice swords and went at it a few more times, but Chrom always found himself with his back on the ground and it seemed to happen faster and faster with each rematch. Despite this he did notice a few things about Linnet's fighting style; It looked rough and unpolished and more times than not she would throw in a few punches, kicks, and even head-butts into the mix which completely threw him off guard the first few times she did it. Despite this she always seemed to be aware of when it was a good time to do such tactics in their fights, which combined with her strong defenses and crazy speed and reflexes made it extremely difficult for him to find any kind of opening.

*huff* *huff* "How….do you…?"

"You're strong and your skill with a blade reflects that well, however you're too focused on what you can see in front of you and neglect to see the unexpected move coming"

Chrom picked himself up "I see… what of you then? Do you hit your opposition with things besides your sword in combat like this all the time?"

"But of course, my entire body is a weapon after all and so I use it as such when I need to."

Chrom laughed at that "So linnet mind if I ask a question?"

"Shoot"

"You're clearly good, you and your bother both, but you don't strike me as your every day run of the mill mercenaries and with what we learned about you yesterday…I'm just wondering , why did you grow to be so strong? What was the purpose behind it?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I just thought there might be a reason behind it, I know I wouldn't be as strong as I am if my kingdom didn't need me to be"

"I don't know about that, you seem to really enjoy yourself when you fight"

"True, but is that the same for you? Or is there another reason you've gotten this strong"

Linnet took her time to think about the questions, why did she amass this much strength anyway? At first the answer was simple, it was so she could protect her family, her mother, Robin, Priam, and the rest of the people they grew up with, but when they needed it…her strength just wasn't enough and her reasons for gaining power changed. She knew the answer for why but she hated herself for it, she hated it because it went against their mother's wishes, what she truly wanted for them. All her mother wanted was for them to live their lives without that man in it, but now they have made their very purpose in living to seeing his end. She fights for revenge, she fight to see another die. In the end they let that man control their lives even to this very moment and without this goal they had nothing but each other, not even a place to return to once the deed was done. It was a cruel truth, one that both scared and disgusted her beyond description, but it was one she lived with.

Chrom look at linnet a bit worried as she suddenly went quiet and let her head fall slightly while she tried to think of an answer to his question. Then when she started to tremble and her breathing became heavier, which only increased his worries.

"Hey are you okay?" he asked as he put a hand on her shoulder to help calm her down.

She inhaled sharply at the man's unexpected touch and without warning grabbed him by the arm and flipped him over her shoulder. Her breaths becoming more erratic and a look of fear painted across her face.

"Gwahhh!" Chrom shouted as he hit the ground with a hard thud.

It took several seconds for Linnet to realize what she just did when she finally came back to reality.

"Oh no" she knelt down "I am so sorry Chrom! I didn't mean to-"

"I-It's fine…it's my fault for touching you when you didn't expect me to"

"But I-"

"Did I miss something?" a voice called out disrupting their little scene.

The two of them turned to see Robin coming back from his jog with cloak carried over his shoulder.

Linnet stood back up "You didn't miss anything"

"Really now?" he said raising an eyebrow.

"Yes really!" she walked back over to the bench and grabbed the tome she was writing in "anyway I have a few more things to get ready so I'll be taking my leave now" and with that she began walking away from the training grounds, but not without giving the prince one last apologetic look.

"Well since she won't, do you care to explain Chrom?" Robin asked turning to the man who was getting up off the ground.

"I wish I knew" he said with a shrug, then he took a look around "weren't you with Frederick, where is he?"

"I remembered I had to inform Lilina and Nephenee of today's mission, so I rushed back here so I could do so and still have enough time to take a quick bath and get so breakfast as well. He shouldn't be that far behind me."

"Wait, you do mean you cut your jog short to come back here right?"

"No, I completely my set of laps and came back as quickly as I could, speaking of I should go so I have enough time to do what I came back for" and with that he was off too.

"He was jogging with Frederick, came back before he did, and didn't look exhausted at all?" no matter how Chrom said it, it just didn't sound right to him.

"Good morning milord" Frederick said as he too returned from the jog.

"Morning Frederick, how was the run?"

"It has made me think about a few things"

"Really"

"Yes, I think I may need to up my training regimen from this day forward, never would I have thought someone would not only be able to keep up but surpass me in sheer stamina"

"No way" Chrom said shocked at his words, then he took one last look in the direction of where his new tactician was heading.

…

Robin found Lilina and Nephenee in the room that was assigned to them in the Shepherd's garrison, both of who seemed to be awaiting the man's arrival since he was the only other person who was informed of their current situation. Both of them were away from their homelands, one of which Robin claims he never heard of, and both were brought here to Ylisse in a flash of bright light for some strange reason. Robin's face alone was enough to tell them that the news was not good, but actually hearing what he had to say only increased that feeling. Nephenee was the first to react to what he told them.

"Time travel? You've gotta know how crazy you sound right now tellin me that."

"Well do you have any other way to explain it? We're talking about something that's been written down in history, a fact, it's not like I'm just coming to you and spouting nonsense without any evidence"

"And I'm tellin you that you must of gottin kicked in the head by a horse before you arrived!"

"Then what about the book I brought? Was the person who wrote it crazy too?"

She looked back through the book Robin gave to her "This just ain't makin any sense, if what you're tellin me is true then…." She grows crestfallen "My family, my home, and my friends, their all gone and I'm no longer anywhere close to where I belong, so you'll understand if I find all of this to be a bit outlandish" she finished voice beginning to waver.

Robin nodded and turned to Lilina who was now sitting on the bed with her head in her hands.

"Elibe..a myth? A place that doesn't exist in this world? If that's true…how will get home? My friends, will I ever see them again? Will I ever see Roy Again?"

And at that Robin had everything he needed to at least start giving them so closure.

"So you are who I thought you were after all"

"Huh?" Lilina looked up at him tears still staining her face.

"Your lord Hectors daughter" was his answer.

Her eyes widened when she heard that "Wait….you knew my dad?"

"Ah…..Yes and no? It's hard to explain"

She slumped her head down once more "Oh, you just heard of the story when you were younger then and I was mentioned in it at some point, huh?"

"No, never had time for things that didn't deal in facts, so I can't say I have"

"Then…?"

"Let me take a quick guess, your father had one of his most trusted friends pick a name out for you. Is that right?"

"Yes but how did-?"

"And that same friend also gave a name to lord Eliwood as well, the name that made me put my memories and what I thought was a coincidence together"

Lilina stared at him "Wait your face" A smile grew on her face and then she ran and hugged him "Uncle Mark!"

"Huh!?"

"Is it really you uncle? I haven't seen you or aunty Lyn since you both disappeared"

Robin was confused at first but returned the hug all the same, flashes of memories that did not belong to him but felt real none the less coming to his mind. Memories of him and Eliwood visiting Hector, Eliwood bringing a young Roy with him and Robin, no, Mark bringing his wife Lyndis. The memory fragments were different this time, Robin wasn't simply watching them. He was living them. But he didn't let it last long as he broke off the hug and his face grew sadder.

"Lilina, I need you to look at me, do I really look like the same man you met as a child?"

She took a closer look at him and although he looked similar he was indeed not Mark "Your hair color is different and you look 10 to 15 years younger than you did when you visited the castle last, but then how?"

"It's hard for me to explain without sounding like I've lost my wits and right now I'm just as confused as the both of you are as to what's going on, but let's just say I share Marks memories for now" Robin said stepping away from her and heading for the door "I don't know what's going on or why either of you are here, but I'm involved now so I'll help in any way I can, that I promise. The shepherd are heading off for a mission today and Chrom wanted to know if you'd be willing to tag along, It's strictly voluntary so I'll understand if you're not up for it, I know my words probably didn't put you in a mood to be. In any case I'll take my leave now, but I hope to see you when we get ready to depart" and with that Robin left the room and the two girls were left to think about his words.

" _Time travel? Sharing another person's memories? Perhaps I truly am crazy. If only I knew where "she" was, perhaps she would have a few answers to all the questions that have been building up over the past day"_ Robin thought as he made his way to take a bath. _"Nah, she made it very clear that help from her was a rare occurrence and something that we should not expect often, after all she no longer likes getting too involved with humans"_

…

After his bath Robin made his way to the dining hall, the smell of food filling his nose as he walked in. The food was already set on the table for anyone take have, so robin took a seat and grabbed an apple to dig into. As he sat there he began to think over everything that happened, what he learned in his research and that memory that felt like his own. Unfortunately G wasn't talking, meaning he was in a state of rest and that Robin would have to wait before he could discuss what happened with him. Robin let out a sigh, thinking about this now would only give him a headache.

"Are you alright there friend?" a man who Robin didn't notice sit next to him asked.

Robin turned his head. The man next to him had a head of green hair not unlike his own and had a calm expression on his face. He also seemed to be very hungry from what Robin could tell because his plate was over flowing with food.

"Yours is a new face, did you just get here?" he asked

"Yes, I was brought here yesterday" Robin answered back "the name is Robin and I've been named the new tactician for the Shepherds"

"Oh so you're the new guy who's going be guiding us into battle huh" The man put out his hand "My name is Stahl, a cavalier for the Shepherds, it's to meet you"

Robin shook his hand "Likewise"

"But man I didn't expect the Shepherds to grow so much in just one day, kind of makes me sad I wasn't there to meet you all when you arrived yesterday"

"Speaking of did you get the announcement? Chrom told some fellow named Vaike to tell everyone who wasn't present about it"

"Announcement? For what?" he asked confused.

"I guess not then. Well the Shepherds have a mission today, we are to head for Ferox to request aid from the Khans"

"Seriously!? No one told me about this, how much time do we have before we leave?"

"About an hour and a half maybe"

Stahl stood up "All I needed to hear! I'll go get my armor and horse ready right away and tell Miriel about it too, since I sure Vaike forgot to inform her as well. Thanks for telling me"

And with that the man ran off to get ready, taking a handful of food with him as he did. Robin couldn't help but laugh at that, it brought his mood up a bit as well.

* * *

It had been a little over 14 years now for Naga as she looked out and over a recovering world, time that for her should have past in the blink of an eye felt terribly long without him. Even so she still had to watch over not only humanity and help them rebuild but also look after her child as well. Just Like with Tiki, Naga feared what would happen if Morgan's immense power was to go wild and she were to degenerate, but she also didn't want to have her child separated from both of her parents and sealed away. Thankfully that wasn't necessary. With the end of Grima and the destruction of the cult that followed him, Naga was able to enlist the help of Lucina and her friends in gathering the gems and the shield of seals in order to contain Morgan's power. Now things were as they should be, but it still wasn't enough for her, she wanted him by her side as well. But he was gone. Naga let out a sigh as she continued to look at the world from her temple, but her attention was immediately turned elsewhere as a portal opened up next to her and someone made their presence known.

"It's been far too long Naga" said a women with bright orange hair as she stepped out of the portal

Naga looked at her acquaintance and smiled "and what brings you here?"


	7. Chapter 6: Return Trip

**Hey everyone! Mind back again with another chapter. As always I hope you enjoy ^-^**

* * *

Chapter 6: Return Trip

 _-A week before the Shepherds were due to arrive in Regna Ferox-_

She was floating in an abyss of darkness, her ears being assaulted by the countless screams of her comrades as they fell one by one. Then it stopped.

' _Where am I?'_ she asked herself as she continued to fall farther into the void.

' _Wait, that's right. We were defeated. Betrayed.'_

The event started to play back in her mind, their leader Sigurd being consumed in the fires of Valflame, all of them trying to fight back in retaliation, and then a rain of hellfire falling upon them, herself included.

' _Then I'm dead then?'_

But the answer to that question became obvious as she began to feel the racking pain all throughout her body. Slowly she started to open her eyes, her vision blurry either from having her eyes closed for far longer than normal or the harsh light assaulting her making it difficult to make anything out. She blinked several times to help focus her sight and when it finally did the first thing she saw was what looked to be a ceiling. She then tilted her head down and saw she was under some kind of fur cover; lifting the cover slightly she saw that her body was wrapped in bandages.

"Eep!"

She heard a shirk come from the other side of the room and the sound of something hitting the floor. Turning her head she saw a women sitting on a chair in the corner of the room and a book that she probably dropped just now on the ground near her feet. This women had long pink hair, was wearing some sort of dancing outfit, and looked extremely nervous.

"Umm…"

"B-B-Basilio! She's up!" she screamed as she ran out of the room.

A little confused as to what just happened she decided to turn her attention to the rest of the room. It was a decent sized room with a desk and fire place inside and it was decorating with animal pelts that made up the rug, wall décor, and as mentioned before the cover that she was currently under. She looked over to the fireplace, which was lit, before averting her eyes from the flames, then she took a look out the window beside her and saw the snow covered streets of some kind of market place.

' _Wherever I am, I'm clearly not in Belhalla any more'_ she thought to herself.

Her thoughts came to a halt as a large muscular dark skinned man walked into the room, he was bold and wore golden armor that covered much of his body save for his chest that was bare and fur that cover around his shoulders and neck attached to the large neck guard of the armor; he also wore an eye patch over his left eye. Accompanying the man was the same dancer that ran out of the room moments prior.

"So you're finally up" the man said to her.

"Were am I? And-ouch" she tried to pick herself off the bed, but the soreness in her body made it difficult.

"Careful there lass, you were in pretty bad shape when we found you; cover in cuts, burns, and ashes. Like someone had put you through hell itself"

' _You can't even begin to image'_ she thought.

"We found you three nights ago in the arena and have been lookin after you since"

"I see, thank you for that umm…"

"Basilio, the current ruling khan of Regna Ferox" he told her.

"Regna Ferox? I've never heard of it" she told him.

"Well that's not good, you don't even know where you are, do you at least have a clue as to how you got so beaten up?"

She took another look towards the flames in the fireplace "I rather not talk about that right now"

Basilio nodded in response to that "Well is there anything you are willing to tell? Your name perhaps?"

"That depends, you guys patched me up so I at least know you don't want me dead…yet, however am I to stay in this room my entire time here?"

"Not at all, you can leave as soon as you feel up to it or stay and figure a few things out while in Ferox, the choice is yours to make. We even fixed up your equipment for you and packed some extra supplies in case you decided to go"

"I see…" she took some time to think about the man's words "My name is Ayra and if you don't mind could you tell me exactly where Ferox is located and what today's date is?"

…

After Robin had finished his launch he made his way to his room in the castle to grab what he left there.

" _Such a nice room, shame I didn't get to use it last night"_ he thought to himself.

He gather the few supplies he left there before Chrom showed him to library, but when he got ready to leave he noticed his mother's diary on the table in the room.

" _Linnet must of left it here for me to hold onto again"_ Robin sighed before picking up the old leather journal, taking out his tome and storing it back insides it's pages with his magic.

Robin was about to make is way out when a certain princess busted into his room and got a hold of his arm.

"There you are! Come on let's get a move on" Lissa said as she began to drag the man.

"Hey! Hold up, you don't have to drag me we still have plenty of time"

"That won't do" she said with a smirk "we can't have the new tactician show up later than the rest of the members of our party on his first mission, what kind of example would you be showing if you did that?"

Something told Robin that there was more to this then just being an example for the rest of the Shepherds, but what that could possibly be he had no clue, so he just complied and allowed the blonde royal to drag him to the meeting place.

...

Waiting for the two of them as they arrived was Chrom and Frederick, the latter of whom was checking the supplies that they would be taking with them from what Robin could see. Chrom on the other hand was tending to some light injuries, most likely obtained when Robin saw Chrom and Linnet earlier.

"Nursing some bruises there Chrom?"

"And finding more as I do" he replied with a sigh.

"Jeez what happened to you?" Lissa asked her brother.

"From the looks of it my sister happened" Robin smirked.

"Ha ha, I have to be honest though, I wasn't expecting to be so out classed"

"From what I saw of you back at Southtown and during our fight at the abandoned Fort I wouldn't say that you're that far behind her in terms of skill"

"Really? Even still in terms of speed and strength she's got me beat"

" **She's** stronger then **you?** Chrom you put holes in the barrack walls on a monthly basis, how is that even possible?" Lissa asked.

"You do what now? How do you manage that?" was Robin's response.

"That's not really all that important" he said with a nervous chuckle "Anyway Robin, what of Lilina and Nephenee? Will they be joining us?"

"I'm not really sure, when we last spoke they didn't really seem up to it"

"I see, perhaps they will reconsider before we depart"

"Perhaps"

After Frederick was done going over the carriages he turned his attention to the trio and spoke.

"We're all set milord" he told Chrom.

"Good, all we have to do now is wait for everyone else"

Then they all heard the sound of a horse approaching them.

"I'm here captain" Said Stahl now dressed in green armor

"Ah Stahl, I see Vaike managed to inform you of today" Chrom said

At this Stahl just gave him a blank Look.

"….He forgot to tell you didn't he?"

*nod*

Lissa begins giggling in the background.

*sigh* "How did you find out?"

He then points to Robin.

*giggling intensifies*

*longer sigh* "Did he at least tell Miriel?"

"Nope, I had to tell her myself. Speaking of which she said that she was going to catch up, she seemed very busy with whatever it was she was doing"

Chrom took a few steps away from everyone else then he shouted "Damn it Vaike you had one job!" and at that the young princess lost it and found herself on the ground in a fit of laughter.

While that was going on Robin saw another person join them. It was a man Robin noticed yesterday but didn't say anything to because it seemed like everyone else was ignoring him. He wore heavy looking armor, had a pretty plain looking face, and for some reason had a strong amount of magic? No a curse hanging off of him. Robin walked up to him.

"Hello there, you ready for this mission" he asked.

The man looked around him to make sure there was no one else around before turning back and giving Robin a wide eyed look.

"Wait you can see me!?" he asked

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I be, I mean you're kind of hard to miss"

At that the man grew a large smile on his face "I wish I could hear that more often, but why didn't say anything to me yesterday?"

"Well everyone else acted like you weren't there so I thought it was some kind of punishment or something, sorry about that"

"No it's quite alright" he put out his hand "My names Kellam by the way"

Robin shook his hand "good to know"

Then two more joined in. coming first was Sumia who managed to trip over her own feet on the way there, which Robin could now definitely say was "normal" for the poor girl, and coming behind her was to his surprise Lilina, who ending up help Sumia up.

"Reporting in captain" Sumia announced as she approached Chrom.

"Glad you could make it" He said back to her before he turned to Lilina "You as well, Robin told me you might not be feeling up for it"

"Uncl-I mean Robin was just over exaggerating I'm sure, I was feeling a little under the weather earlier but I'm much better now" she told him with a smile.

"Good to hear"

She nodded to him and then turned to Robin and gave him a look that most likely meant that they should talk later before turning her attention to Sumia, who he could only assume she became friends with.

After that Nephenee and Sully where the next to show up. The two seemed to be having a good conversation with one another, as they were both smiling and laughing as they made their approach. They gave the group their greetings then continued to go on with what they were taking about before.

' _It's good to see that they both seem to be doing alright'_ Robin noted.

"Looks like I'm ones of the last to arrive"

Robin saw his sister Linnet make her way to them. Attached to her belt was four pouches, each of which Robin knew carried a tome inside.

' _If I were to guess, she probably prepared Lightning, Elight, Nosferatu, and Aura to take with her'_ he thought.

She look at the few bandages Chrom had on him.

"Again I'm very sorry about what happened earlier" she told him.

"It fine, no harm done" she pointed to one of the bruises he missed "well not much at least"

"That's good" she replied.

"Good evening my friends, the archest of archers has arrived" said Virion walking up.

"More like flirtiest of flirts, but good evening to you as well Virion" Linnet said back.

"Sharped tongued as ever, I like it" he replied in earnest.

"Worry not everyone for the teach has just arrived!"

Everyone turned their attention to the blonde as he shouted and made his way to the group with ax in hand.

"I see you at least remembered one thing for today Vaike" Chrom said looking at the weapon in the man's hand.

' _He's forgotten his weapon before?'_ Robin thought.

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?"

"You forgot to tell Stahl and Miriel about today, duh" Lissa chimed in.

Vaike looked around and saw Stahl in the group.

"But Stahl's here ain't he?"

"That's because Robin told me about it" the Cavalier responded.

"Oh"

"Just admit it, you totally forgot didn't Vaike?" the princess asked

"Hey the Vaike never forgets….he just doesn't always remember, alright" he replied with a rub to the back of his head.

"Well since we're all here, are we ready to depart everyone?" Chrom addressed everyone there.

"Yes sir!" Was mostly everyone's response, minus Lilina and Nephenee.

…

It was a long march to Ferox, one filled with complaints from Lissa about being cold, Virion hitting on the women of the group, and Vaike bragging about his many feets. It was refreshing for the twins and something that they had not had in a very long time. Being by their selves and avoiding getting involved with larger groups such as this made them forget how fun it could be to travel with more people and since everyone in the Shepherd seemed to have their own little quirks, they made for a very colorful group of individuals that never got boring through the long travel. It was only the fourth day of traveling but with no inconveniences and with the group moving at a good pace, from what Robin and Linnet could tell they would be at Longfort by sun down. Along the way the group encountered a group risen in their path.

"How many do you see Robin?" Chrom asked him.

"We have about 20…make that 23 in our way" he replied back while using Fell eye to gauge the amount of foes they would face.

"So what are we doing? Linnet asked her brother.

"hmmm" he thought "despite their numbers, the risen-"

"Zombies" Linnet said flatly

Robin ignored her interruption and kept going "should be easy to take out if we take into account our weapon diversity and their poor coordination. Since she can't really fight quite yet we'll have Sumia hang back. Sully and Nephenee, I want you to handle the ones on the left side, while Frederick and Vaike will take the ones on the right. Virion, Lilina and I will provide covering fire and pick of any ranged attackers if any, if not take out whoever gets to close. Chrom and Linnet will protect the center and cut down anything that comes near the carriages. Last but not least Kellam I want you to protect Lissa and Sumia if anything gets past us."

"Wait Kellam is here?" Chrom asked

"Umm captain I'm right next to you" Kellam spoke

Chrom and a few others jumped at the voice and then they noticed him "Sorry Kellam, I guess I didn't see you"

"Alright let's get in here and-huh!?"

"What is it Vaike?" Robin asked

"Where did my ax go?"

"Please don't say you dropped it" Lissa said

"There's no way that happened"

"Where is it then?"

The man had no response.

Robin sighed "change of plans, Vaike you'll hang back with Sumia, Kellam, and Lissa; and I'll take your spot with my ax"

"I don't see an ax on you" the blonde replied.

Robin brought out his tome and called fourth Urvan from its pages, leaving everyone except Linnet, Lilina, Nephenee, and Virion in surprise.

"Any questions?"

No one said anything.

"Good, then let's get a move on"

Everyone got into position after that.

"So that's what you meant by you always carry one" Frederick said.

"Told you, you'd get to see it sooner or later" Robin replied

"Though when you said that, I wasn't expected it to be well-"

"3/4 my height?"

"Yeah I was thinking more of a throwing ax"

"Well I hope this didn't disappoint"

He chuckled "Not at all"

"Shall we then?"

"I'll lead the way" and with that Frederick charged in and started impaling risen on his lance.

The fight didn't last very long with this group of risen, for the shepherds had the weapons, range and mobility advantage against them. At some point in all the fighting a mage wearing a very large hat carrying what seemed to be Vaike's ax came which allowed him to join the fight and end things much quicker. Chrom later introduced the new addition as Miriel and after that the Shepherds continued forward towards Regna Ferox. Along the way they came across what looked to be an injured Pegasus that Chrom almost lost his hand to when attempting to approach it. Sumia reassured him that the creature was just hurt and scared and decided to stay with it and take care of it, while the rest of the group went ahead towards Longfort a short distance away.

"So this is Longfort huh?" Chrom asked

"Yep" Robin answered

"Milord let's go ahead and talk to the guard of the fort" Frederick told him

"Right"

"Hold it right there you two, you should let us handle this" Linnet stopped them.

"Huh? How come?"

"She's right, we should be the ones to go, Plegia has been sending bandits masquerading as Ylissian soldiers to attack the Feroxi border, so if you go saying you're from Ylisse then you're going to get attacked and most of the guards at least know our faces" Robin said.

"Those Plegia dastards, but if you think this is for the best then I'll go with it"

The both of them nodded and then walked forward.

"HALT! State your name and purpose or I'll have my-Wait, Robin, Linnet is that you?" I women called out from atop the gate.

"It looks like you're as busy as always Raimi and as eager to get into a fight" Linnet spoke back.

"Well you're hell of lucky I know who you are, I was about to have my men rain javelins upon you"

"That sounds about right" Linnet said under her breath

"Raimi, can we get an audience with Flavia or Basilio?" Robin asked

"For you two sure thing, but if you don't mind me askin who's the group behind you?"

"That is the Prince of Ylisse and his militia"

"Wow, going from hanging with the Khans to meeting the Ylissian royal family in just three weeks or so, you two really get around"

She turned to her men.

"Go ahead and open the gate"

"Yes ma'am" one of them said.

"Wait right there and I'll be down to escort you to Arena Ferox" she told them.

The gate to Ferox opened and Linnet motioned for everyone to come on ahead.

…

Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, Robin, and Linnet were currently being led down the halls of Arena Ferox by Raimi.

"It's good to be back here again, Flavia throw any parties recently Raimi?" Linnet asked.

She smiled "Hardly, she's been too busy trying to prepare for the coming battle of the khans"

"Battle of the khans? What's that?" Lissa spoke up.

"It's a tournament that happens every few years between the east and west khan to see who get the final say on decisions that involve the whole of Regna Ferox or so we were told a couple of weeks back" Robin answered.

"Still can't believe you two refused to participate in it, it's an honor to be asked you know"

"We know, but at the time we had other things we needed to do" Linnet told her

"Like join Ylisse in their fight?"

"That kind of just happened"

"So which khan are we going to meet?" Chrom asked.

"I'm taking you to Flavia the eastern khan"

Just then the group heard someone running to them

"Is that Lon'qu?" Robin asked

Lon'qu stopped in front of them.

"Lon'qu, what brings you all the way over here?"

He turned to her and spoke.

"A soldier informed Basilio of a group's arrival to Ferox and he requested I check it out"

"What for?"

He looked at Robin "Robin, he told me I was to retrieve you"

"Me?"

"Follow" he simply said as he started walking off.

"Um…okay? I guess I'll meet up with you guys later" he began to walk after him.

"Any clue of what that was about?" Chrom asked.

"I have no idea" Linnet said a little confused.

…

Lon'qu brought Robin to a large room with a big table in the center of it. Sitting to the left of the table was a dancer that Robin had seen many time during his year in Ferox, Olivia. Lon'qu who was showing Robin here took a seat for himself at the right of the table. And at the far end of the table was Khan Basilio who sat there and looked at Robin with a smile.

"Robin it's nice to see you again, go ahead and take a seat" Basilio gestured towards the empty chair that was opposite his own.

Robin sat down "What's this about Basilio? You're not going to ask me to be one of your champions again are you?"

The bold man laughed "Don't worry I'm not going to bother you with something you've already refused once, besides I already have my champions set for the battle of the khans" he told him.

"Then what did you call me for?"

He smirked "Well you see me and Flavia wanted to get people more hyped for the coming battle that'll take place in the next 5 days. Now typically we hold normal arena battles, smaller matches that we let go on first before we have our main event, but this year we wanted to try something different"

"Like what exactly?"

"We're calling it the tournament of the King"

"Tournament of the king? So how will this event work?"

"Over the course of the next few days leading up to the battle of the khan this event will be going on. Fighters from all over Ferox will be split up into 4 brackets label A-D. These fighters will all go through their respective Brackets on each day leading to the main event until there is only one fighter from each Bracket left, then on the day of the battle of the Khans, those 4 fighters will compete in quarter finals and semi-final matches to see who will be facing against the king"

"Wow that sounds really cool, so are you asking me to participate?"

"In a way yes" his grin grew wider.

Lon'qu then spoke up "I'll be fighting in this tournament as well, if fact I was assigned to bracket C, so I look forward to having a chance at battling you again"

"Huh? But I haven't even said whether or not I'll be fighting in this yet, speaking of which who is acting as the king in this tournament?"

"The title of "king" in this event goes to the person he has racked up the most arena victories over the course of the past year" Basilio started.

"Wait your telling me that…"

"It was close between you and your sister, but the extra days you spent here while she was away from Ferox before she came back and you both decided to leave pulled the tides in your favor. Robin with over 3000 fights won in the arena over the course of the past year, I khan Basilio name you king.

* * *

 **Yay Ayra made it in! you have no idea How conflicted I was in deciding whether or not to involve her in this story, but at the end of the day I think I made the right choice. I also thought this whole "Tournament of the king" idea would be a fun little thing to write and a good way to introduce her since I'm thinking about pairing her up with Robin in this story. As always leave a review if you want and give me your thoughts and I'll be back with another chapter soon. seeya :p**


	8. Tournament Of the King part 1

**Nothing really special to say, so as always enjoy**

* * *

Chapter 7: Tournament of the King part 1

-3 days before the Shepherds arrived at Regna Ferox-

In the end Ayra thought it wise to stay in Regna Ferox and was trying to make sense of what could have possible lead her to where she was. She kept up a strong face when Basilio gave her the answers she wanted but deep down she could feel her heart begin to sink. After a couple more days of rest she was back on her feet and the first thing she did was look into the knowledge imparted to her. First of all, she was no long on the continent of Jugdral. She was currently on some far off continent that she had never heard of named Ylisse, which she found out through her own research was formally known as Archanea. Basilio also informed her that it was currently year 2600 on their calendar, meaning that if their calendar matched up with the Gran calendar system used in Jugdral that she was put forward in time over 1800 years as crazy as that may had sound. However by going through some old historical text on both Jugdral and Archanea, Ayra had figured out that the Holy Kingdom of Archanea and its calendar had not started until 419 whole years after Arvis' betrayal at Belhalla, meaning that she was in fact over 3000 years in the future.

"Most of Sigurd's army was either confirmed dead or reported as missing after what happened at Belhalla, Including myself it seems" she read out loud.

As she read through the text she discovered that some of her comrades did indeed survive the trap laid out before them, however brief that may have been, and that they were avenged in the end by their children 17 years after their deaths. Arvis was also stated to be a pawn in the grand scheme of things, every event that had happened, including the conflict between Isaach and Grannvale that resulted in the death of her father and her brother and forced her and Shannan from their home, was all orchestrated by one person. Manfroy.

"So the next generation finished our fight huh?"

She continued flipping through pages, not really reading anymore of tome's contents as she thought more about what happened after she disappeared.

"We passed on such a great burden to them…If only-"

She cut herself off with a sigh, then she re-focused her mind with a shake of her head.

"No. To think of what ifs and if onlys, only serves to taint the memory of honor and pride your comrades once held" she told herself, then her eyes jumped back to the pages once more as something jumped out at her.

' _Shannan ascended the Isaachian thrown, with his strength and kind heart he brought peace to Isaach for many years to come'_

She smiled "So you grew up to be strong in the end, didn't you Shannan" and with that she closed the book and returned it back to where she got it from.

"I cannot change what has already happened, but I can take this second chance at life and use it to better the me that failed all those years before" she began to walk towards the training arena "and I think a nice first step will be this little tournament that will be hosted in just a few days"

* * *

Robin was on his way back from his discussion with Basilio, he wanted to have a meeting with Chrom and the rest about what their next move would be when it comes to gaining Feroxi aid.

"Knowing both Basilio and Flavia neither one is going to think about lending help until the 'Battle of the Khans' is over" he mumbled to himself.

"G what are your thoughts on this?"

But there was no response from the man that lived inside his head.

"Strange, it's been a week now and he still hasn't resurfaced I wonder if he started to piece some things together and just needs to focus"

After a few more minutes of walking Robin finally saw the rest of the group he left when he followed Lon'qu earlier, from the looks of it they just got done with their meeting as well.

"Hey everyone, how'd it go with Flavia" Robin asked

"She said she would help us if we became her champions and helped her win the battle of the Khans in 5 days' time" Chrom replied.

"I could've guessed" he smirked "I assume that means she roped you in to huh sis?"

"Not yet, we wanted to wait and see who you thought would be the best choice to participate in the fight" she started "that and I think I'd feel bad for refusing one day only to came back and pick a side without telling the other"

"Basilio already knew we were here and that we were being taken to Flavia, so I'm sure he's aware of what she would ask for"

"Speaking of, what did he want from you?"

"Right, did Flavia happen to mention an event that starts tomorrow?"

Frederick spoke "She did, something that they are referring to as 'The Tournament of the King'"

"How come? Did Basilio ask you to participate in it?" Linnet asked her brother.

Robin gave a nervous smile and averted his gaze while scratching the back of his head as he gave the same answer Basilio gave him when he asked that same question "In a way yes"

He coughed into one of his hands that he balled up into a fist.

"In any case, so long as we do what's been asked of us I'm sure we can get the help we need from Ferox. Chrom you'll need 5 fighters right? I want Linnet, Frederick, Virion, and….hmmm perhaps Miriel or Lilina to go with you, got it?"

"That sounds good to me" He answered

"Good, now if you'll excuse me I think I'll be turning in for the night"

"Are you sure? The night is still young you know" the prince told him.

"I think others might disagree with you" Robin pointed to the tired young princess that looked like she was about to fall over "besides I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow and need to be up early"

"Alright, I guess we'll see you tomorrow then"

"Yep, seeya" and with that Robin made is way to the room that was assigned to him by Basilio.

 _-Tournament of the King: Day 1-_

"You ready to get this started boy?" Basilio asked Robin.

"As ready as I'm going to be" Robin answered as he lifted his hood up over his face concealing it.

The two were currently walking down a long corridor leading to the arena. As they made their way down they began to hear the cheers of the crowd grow louder and feel it reverberate throughout the hall. Standing just in front of the entrance leading out was Flavia who looked like she was waiting on the two of them.

"Bout time you got here, the crowd getting antsy. By the way Robin what's with the hood?" she asked pointing to hood over his head.

"You know how much I hate being made the center of attention, besides it shouldn't make too much of a difference considering people will recognize it's me once they see my cloak" he answer.

"True" she said turning back to the arena "come on now, best not keep the folks waiting any longer"

And with that the three made headed out to greet the people.

The colosseum was full, the people there anxious for the new event. In the arena already was a group of fighters waiting for the Khans to come out address the people who came and give the rules of the tournament to them. Sitting in a private viewing booth giving to them by the Khans was the Shepherds.

"Well this is quite the turnout" Chrom said surprised

"That's an understatement, I don't think I've seen this many people in one place before" Lissa said as she looked around.

"What do you expect? This place breeds warriors. Events like these always guarantees attention like this, not just from the people who live her but for tourist as well" Linnet says.

"It doesn't make it any less amazing to see though, by the way has anyone seen Robin?" Stahl asked.

"Yeah isn't he going to show up?" Lilina was curious as well.

"One of the Khans asked him to participate in the event so he might be in the arena already with the rest of the fighters waiting for the Khans to give the rules" Linnet answered

"But Flavia also told us that this event was broken up into 4 different brackets and that each group of fighters from one particular bracket would be fight on each day" Frederick added

Chrom put a hand to his chin "meaning that unless Robin was fighting in this bracket he wouldn't necessarily need to be down there in the arena with the rest of that group of people"

Everyone then looked at the group of fighters to see if they could spot Robin's ever so noticeable cloak.

"I don't see him" Lissa said.

"Hey ain't that Robin behind two others comin out right now?" Nephenee asked pointing towards the tactician and the two Khans as they came out.

"You're right, but why is he coming out with the Khan Flavia?" Lissa said

As the three make their entrance, the ground begins to open up on one side of the arena; gears turning and metallic sounds reverberating through the air as it does. This causes the whole colosseum to shake as a platform with three throne-like chairs setting on it and a staircase leading to them rises from the ground overlooking the fighting area. They all began to walk up the stairs to the platform and when they reached the top they turned to the Crowd of the people present.

"Wow what just happened!?" Lissa asked

"Was that some sort of magic?" Lilina added

"Nope, Arena Ferox is actually one large machine that is capable of shifting around to alter the battle field" Linnet answered.

"Fascinating, this will require study" Miriel said.

"We should quite down, they are about to speak"

 _-A few moments before the Khans arrived-_

Ayra was standing in the middle of a large group of fighters in Arena Ferox awaiting the start of the event. As she stood there she looked at those around her. There were all kinds of people participating in this tournament from common mercenaries to those of noble houses, each and every one of them carrying their own weapons of choice and each brimming with a sort of confidence that screamed that they would win. Despite this however none of the people she saw really jumped out at her or seemed like they'd be much of a challenge.

" _I guess experiencing much rougher conflicts will make you think that way huh"_ She thought to herself.

Then the group around her got quiet and earth began to shake beneath her feet and when she looked up a giant stair case started to rise up. After that she saw three people climb up the steps, one of whom she recognized as Basilio, the Western Khan, who helped her recover from her wounds. She then looked to the women who, if she had to guess from the short description Basilio gave before, was the Eastern Khan Flavia. Then she turned her attention to the final person following them. She couldn't make out what they looked like because they wore a hood over their head, but from the clothes they wore she could only assume that they were some sort of mage.

" _I guess that person must be the one we're all competing to challenge then, the king. Strange I wasn't expecting the king to be a magic user"_

It was an understandable statement to say to herself, not to say mages were weak. Sure if they had their distance away from their foe and time to cast their magic they could be a real threat against anyone, but in a one on one setting where there is limited space and chance to get away from the opposition they were at a clear disadvantage. As she was having this thought though she began to hear whispers amongst the group she was in.

"Wait that cloak!"

"W-w what is he doing here? I thought he left Ferox three weeks ago!"

"Damn and here I thought the only person I'd have to worry about was Lon'qu"

"There no way we can win! He's a monster!"

"This is bad, if he's here then does that mean she is too!?"

They all began to panic upon seeing the cloaked figure which left Ayra both shock and disappointed, the fight had not yet began and many of her would be opponents looked about ready to quit.

Looking out over the combatants the trio that walked up two there platform above the pit the fight would take place in noticed the mood shift instantly when they stepped in. Many of the fighters who saw Robin walk with the Khan had looks of doubt or defeat upon their faces. To say this angered Robin slightly would be an understatement.

"Looks likes you instill quite a bit of fear in a lot of these warriors Robin" Basilio said looking at them all with his one good eye.

"If they crumble at the sight of a mere man that they are yet facing in battle, then they have no right to call their selves warriors, regardless of if they were bested by me before" Robin said back.

"Your damn right they don't" Flavia agreed "even still we should probably start"

"Right" Basilio the turned to everyone and shouted in his booming voice "Hello everyone and welcome to the first ever 'Tournament of the King'! Now I know all of you didn't come here to see some old man like myself yapping all day so I'll keep this short" he turn and extended and arm over to Robin as if presenting him "Some of you may know this man or better yet have fought him before in this very arena, but for those of you who don't, this here is Robin. With 3274 victories under his belt over the past year in the arena he has earned the title of king!"

The crowd begins to cheer at Khans words, but most of the Shepherds were left shocked and speechless as the saw there tactician standing there being named the final challage of this event.

"As the king Robin will be the one to watch and judge all of the battles during this event. As for rules fighters are allowed to use any weapon they wish so long as it's visible for their opponent to see. If you use any concealed weapons, try to attack your opponent after a match has been called, or attempt to kill your opponent during or after the match, you will be punished immediately and disqualified"

Basilio looked down to see if anyone had any objections and when he saw none he turned to Robin.

"With all of that said does the king have anything he would like to add?"

"I do actually" he replied before bringing his attention out towards the combatants "As I walked out here just a few moments ago I saw something that truly disgusted me, the look of defeat. But it was not just that look alone that made me sick, it was the fact that not a single fight has occurred yet today and yet I see such a look plastered on the faces of so many. So I'll say this to all who have lost their will to fight and challenge me, leave. Turn your sorry arses around and quit now, because you don't deserve to be here in Arena Ferox, hell you don't deserve to be here in Regna Ferox if the mere sight of me makes you tremble in fear. But if you do decide to stay, then fight! Fight with your pride and honor on the line and try your damnedest to win. And even if you don't win, come out of your loss knowing that you gave it your best and strive to improve"

At those word the fighter who had second thoughts about the tournament looked up and cheered at Robin speech along with the entire crowd watching.

"Well damn, I didn't know you had it in you Robin" Flavia said

"It wasn't much, but it's good to see they have some fire back in them, now we might get some good fights out of this sorry lot"

"Indeed" Basilio agreed "and with that said the tournament will now begin!"

Robin took his seat in the chair that was placed in the middle of the platform they were on while Basilio took the seat to his left and Flavia the one to his right. Then Robin activated 'Fell's eye' to get a better look at the area the people would be fighting in and all the other fighters who were standing in the arena left the fighting area leaving only the two who would be fighting in the first match.

…

The tournament went on smoothly for the first several hours and everyone one watching the event seemed to be enjoying what they saw. Robin monitored each match with a keen eye making sure nothing went wrong and even found himself enjoying doing so more than he thought he would. After a while the Khans started making bets on who they thought would win the Bracket, which caught Robin's interest.

"So is there anyone who you can say you're sure will win this Bracket?" Robin asked the Khans

"Not really, unlike Bracket C that has Lon'qu and Bracket D that has Raimi in it, there isn't really anyone that I can say will sweep all the matches they are in, in this one" Flavia said

"That's true, this one maybe a little more up in the air as to who will come out on top" Basilio added

"U-umm, w-will the next pair of fighters come on out?" Olivia said as she stood in the center of the arena

"You sure she'll be okay out there Basilio?" Robin asked looking over at him

"She'll be fine, she's tougher then she looks"

"She looks like she wants to hide herself in a hole"

"While you two are flapping your mouths the next two fighter are coming"

They refocused their attention to the arena. The first person to come out was a man carrying a dagger in each hand, with a creepy smile spread across his face. He wore leather armor and had tattoos up along his forearms and when he reached fight area he gave Olivia a perverted look as he eyed her up and down. This of course made the girl take a few reflexive step away from them man.

"Well he certainly looks pleasant" Robin said

"You don't have to mince words around us you know Robin" Flavia told him

"I know, but you wouldn't want to know what I really what to say abou-"

But Robin stopped mid-sentence as he turned to see the man's opponent. Walking in was a women with long black hair and amethyst colored eyes. She wore a long purple dress with cut sides that revealed her long shapely legs and thigh long white boots that had armor over the shins, she also wore a breastplate, shoulder pads and long white gloves that were armored along her hands. Strapped on her belt was a sword and she had a very focused, calm, and almost cold expression on her face. Robin couldn't help but to be entranced by the women in front of him, but he was soon snapped out of his reverie when he heard the sound of the Khan's voices in his ears.

"…boy!"

"H-huh! W-what is it!" he managed to get out.

"You need to call the match" Flavia said.

"O-oh, Right" Robin signaled for the match to begin with a wave of his hand and the fighters took theirs stances.

The man with the scar then gave Ayra the same look he gave Olivia while licking his lips.

"Hey their beautiful, how about you just give up right now, I wouldn't want to hurt a pretty thing like you" he said with a grinned

However this only served to anger her as she readied her weapon.

"Suit yourself, but don't worry, after this is over I'll take you out for some drinks as an apology"

He rushed towards her at full speed and swung at her with one of his daggers, but she easily dodge his swing, then he tried to stab at her gut but she side stepped that attack as well and using the man's momentum against him as she brought the butt of her sword to his nose.

* **CRACK!***

"AHHHHHHHHH!" he reeled back and shouted in pain as he held his now broken and bloody nose.

" _Now this is just pitiful"_ Robin thought to himself as he called the match then and there

"That's enough" he said

Ayra looked down at the man "Next time maybe you should focus more the fight in front of you instead of what else you have going on in that mind of your" she told him before she began to walk away.

"You bitch!" the man yelled as he ran after her dagger in hand.

Ayra was about to take him down when…

"Yotsmungand!"

"Ahhhg!" he was hit by a powerful spell and was brought to his knees clutching to his stomach in pain, then seconds later he began to vomit before finally passing out.

"Jeez Robin what did you do to him" Basilio asked

"hehehe" a sinister grin grew on Robins face and he let out a spine chilling giggle.

"Boy, you alright?"

He snaps out of it "Sorry about that, it kind of just happens when I use dark spells, messes with my head. That spell I just used poised him so we should get him to a healer quickly"

"Right"

Basilio told some of the overseers to take the man to a healer and he was taken out of the arena. While this was all happening Ayra took one last look at Robin then she took her leave until she was needed for her next match.

"You know I think we may have just found the one who will sweep this whole bracket" Robin said

"You think so Robin?" Flavia asked curiously

"I can tell just by looking at her, she has the look of someone who has lost too much before to allow herself to fail again"

…

It was just like Robin said, in the end she did end up winning her entire bracket and it didn't take much to notice that Robin's attention to the fights would suddenly increase when she was a part of it, which caused the Khans to tease the young tactician. Basilio was eventually kind enough to tell Robin that her name was Arya and that she was found by him a little over a week before he and the Shepherds arrived in Ferox. He also told him that she kept quiet about pretty much everything else involving her personal situation and that if he wanted to know more about her that he would have to grow a pair and talk to her himself, which only made Robin go red in the face as he thought about approaching the mysterious women that caught his attention, which in turn only made Basilio and Flavia tease him more.

After the first day of the event was over Robin had fully intended to go talk to the Shepherds, however it was already really late and because the event started really early in the morning Robin didn't get the chance to do what he normally does every morning. So he decided it was best to take a quick visit to his room and grab a few things so that he could get in a short training session before turning in for the night.

"I probably should change into some different clothes" Robin said to himself as he looked in the mirror "even if people couldn't see my face with how dark it is right now my normal clothes stick out too much and the last thing I want is to be stopped along the way by some random challenger wanting to pick a fight"

With that said Robin summoned some spare clothes that he had inside his tome. He took off his boots and baggier white pants and switched them out for white jeans and steal toed shoes that had a thick leather covering on them that went up to just below his knees. He then switched out his grey under shirt for a brown short sleeved shirt and replaced his normal cloak with a blue long sleeved shirt that had yellow trim along its edges, was longer in the back, and had its left sleeve torn to make it easier for him to swing his sword. Finally he took off his normal wrist bracers and replaced them with armored fingerless gloves, but not before he took a look at the brand on his right hand.

Unlike the one on his left hand, that only glowed when he was holding onto Falchion, this one always glowed with a blue hue that seemed to put his heart at ease whenever he looked at its light. However he knew all too well what this mark represented and what it would mean if others saw it on him. Sometimes he wished he got as lucky as his sister did when it came to the placement of his brand, but if he was being perfectly honest he would rather be rid of it and the cruel fate it tied him to altogether. Feeling memories come back to him he would rather not revisit right now, Robin put on his gloves then grabbed one finally piece to complete his look, a dark blue bandana that had a patterned stitched into it. A gift given to him by Priam to match the green one that he always wore. With that done he left his room and headed for the arena to get some training done.

As he walked through the dark halls of Arena Ferox, Robin's thoughts were brought back to the raven haired swordswomen that he saw compete today. He didn't know what it was about her that kept her coming back to his mind, but he couldn't help but think he wanted to know more about her.

" _What is with me? I mean sure she's attractive that certainly helps, but this isn't the first time I've seen a pretty girl and have Virion tell it I've been breaking the hearts of attractive females since he's met me, as stupid as that sounds"_

While Robin was having these thoughts he didn't even notice he was where he desired to be until the sound of something slicing through air caught into his ears forcing him to look up. He was indeed at the arena, but the space that he assumed would be vacant at this hour had one occupant in it. Under the light of the moon over head was the same raven haired women that he had witnessed fight in the event today and the one person he had on his mind since the event had ended. Ayra was hacking away at some training dummies set up in front of her with her sword, each one of her strikes fast, precise, graceful,…

"So beautiful" Robin said as he stared at her completely entranced once more

She swiftly tuned at his words, sword at the ready "Who's there!"

"W-whoa!" Robin said putting his hands up in surrender "calm down, I just came here to get some late night training done"

She eyed him a bit longer before turning back to what she was doing without another word.

" _Great job Robin, you manage to find the girl who was on your mind all evening only to sit back and gawk at her, strong first impression"_

Robin made his way over to weapons rack and grabbed a silver sword, then he moved away from Ayra as to not disturb her while she trained.

" _Remember what you came here for Robin! Focus! Focus!"_ he thought as he took a deep breath.

 _*SWISH!*_

Then he swung his sword

 _*SWIISH!*_

Then he swung it again

 _*SWIIISH!*_

And again

He continued until the only things on his mind was himself and the sword in his hands. More and more he slashed at the air remembering what his mother told him 'Your strikes should be powerful enough to cleave through any foe you come across, any less is as if you never swung your blade at all'. So he continued to swing his blade reminiscing on all of those countless hours he would practice his swing, then he finally let himself be aware of the world around him once more.

"It's a bit lighter then what I'm used to but it'll have to do" he said to himself as he prepared to go grab some training dummies, but then he felt someone eyes on him.

Turning around Robin saw Ayra staring at him. He didn't know for how long she was watching him, but she had the same cold calmness on her face as she did in all of her matches that day. It took everything he had not to get lost in her amethyst eyes and say something to her.

"I-I'm sorry, d-did I distract you by chance?" he said fumbling his words

"No, I was just admiring your form" she said matter a factly

"You were!? Well what did you think!?" he asked, way too excited he's talking to her

"I was impressed, I can tell that there was quite a lot of power in each strike and yet you're not just swinging wildly"

Robin could've sworn he saw a hint of a smile when she said that and couldn't help but blush.

"Thank you, I saw your matches in the arena today so coming from someone like you that means a lot"

"Speaking of, you wouldn't happen to be participating in this tournament as well would you?"

"M-me?" he thought about whether or not he should tell her he was in fact the king, after all pretty much everyone else knew, but in the end he decided against it "N-no, I'm actually just visiting Ferox for the 'Battle of the Khans' in a couple days' time"

It wasn't a complete lie.

"A shame, I think you'd had actually done really well had you been participating"

" _It kind of sounded like she was disappointed, nah what am I thinking"_

She then sheathed her blade and started to leave.

"Done training?" he asked a little sad she was leaving

"Yes, I've been out here long enough for one night so I think I'll head to bed" she began to walk again but she stopped and faced him.

"My name is Ayra, is it alright if I ask you yours?"

" _S-She wants to know my name!"_

Robin had to stifle a shriek of excitement at what was happening.

" _Calm down, calm down, your just giving her your name you idiot"_ he scolded himself

"Um it's…." he paused "Reflet, my name is Reflet"

"Nice to meet you, I hope one day we get the chance to cross blades" and with that she left.

For a moment Robin just stood there watching her walk away, then a moment more staring at where she once stood and then he smiled.

"Did she just inadvertently say she wishes to see me again?"

Robin let out a soft giggle, then it grew into a slightly louder chuckle, and then finally turned into full blown laughter. Then after he finally got it out of his system he shouted..

"HELL YEAH!"

Before continuing his training with more enthusiasm then before.

* * *

 **Hey guys! I hope you don't mind Robin falling for Ayra at first sight, I know it's a bit cliche but I think it's a good way to set up their relationship the way I plan to in the future. I also wanted to give more time to other characters and set up more, but to do so would have made this way too long, so most of it had to be saved for later. The clothes Robin switches into towards the end are the same clothes Ike wears when he is in his ranger class in his games and is personally my favorite outfit Ike has. Last but not least, expect dark magic spell turning robin** **temporarily crazy to be a reoccurring gag in this story.**

 **As always leave a review if you want to give me your thoughts and I'll back with another one soon.**


	9. Chapter 8-Intermission

**Hey everyone! sorry for the shorter chapter this time around, it's the end of the semester for me and I have a lot of work to do. Nevertheless I wanted to still give you something to read this week so here you are, some of the stuff that I had to cut out of last chapter. I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave me your thoughts.**

* * *

Chapter 8: Intermission

 _ **3 hours into the first day of the 'Tournament of the King'**_

Two figures are standing in one of the entry ways leading to the arena, watching the fights from there.

"Yotsmungand!" they watch as the 'king' slings a spell at a man attempting to attack his opponent after the battle was called.

"This is so frustrating! Why do we have to sit here and hide like this?" a girl concealing herself in a grey cloak says.

"Because Lucy doesn't want us to mess with the timeline anymore then we have to" a boy wearing a similar cloak replies to his companion.

"But it's not fair, I mean look" she points out towards the arena "They're both right there, Lucina gets to see her parents so why can't we-"

"I want to talk to them as much as you do, but what would we do? Say "hi we're you children from a doomed future?" I don't think that would go well. Besides Lucina's the oldest so she get the final say"

"She's only older then us by a couple of months" the girl says with a pout "what about you? You think this is dumb to, don't you mor-"

The girl stopped midsentence when she turned to see that the third member of their little group was nowhere to be found

"Well, this can't be good" the boy said under his breath as he proceeded to place a hand on his forehead.

"Where the heck did that munchkin go!?"

 **Elsewhere, in a small café in Ferox.**

A wide smile crept along the face of a young girl shrouded under a grey cloak as she looked at the piece of paper in her hand and took a sip of juice out of her mug.

"I was assigned to bracket B huh?" she said as she looked over her registry for the tournament that was currently underway.

"I guess that means I'll be fighting tomorrow" her smile grew larger just thinking about it.

The girl placed her mug back on the table she was sitting at and grabbed a sandwich that was on a plate next to it while looking out the window next to her.

"So many people, I guess **this** is what a festival is like" she said to herself never actually seeing a festival before.

"Let's see, what should I use?" she said thinking to herself "I think I'll just use my short ax and short sword while I'm here, anymore then that might tip them off"

She finished her sandwich and drank that last her juice before getting up, leaving some money on the table and heading for the door out to the street; blending in with the crowd as she did.

"I should probably find an inn to hide in for the next few days so big brother and sister don't find me and scold me for this" she said with a scratch of her head as she made her way through the people enjoying the festival being held.

…

"BOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!" whined the young princess as she watched the fights with the rest of the shepherds.

"What's wrong Lissa?" Chrom asked as he turned away from the match that just ended.

"This is! I wouldn't mind watching if it was one of you guys fighting, but is there anything else to do besides watching a bunch of random matches?" she asked.

"Well there is a festival taking place in town" Linnet answered.

"There is!" she beamed practically jumping from her seat.

"mmhmm, since this event draws so many people in venders and shop keepers pull out all of the stops to sell their wares and the people who live here set up games and decorations around the town to welcome the new faces that visit"

"That sounds way better than this, come on let's go" she said standing from her seat.

"And who's going with you?" Chrom asked.

"I'll go, I basically lived here for a year so I know my way around the place" Linnet told him.

"Do you mind if I join? The festival sound really interesting" Lilina asked them.

"Of course not" Lissa told the bluenette who smiled in response.

"I think I would like to join too" Sumia said wanting to tag along

"Sweet we can make this a girl's thing then. Sully, Nephenee, Miriel, you coming?" Linnet asked.

"I believe I will remain here, I am still quite fascinated with the mechanism that allow this "arena" to function. Such advanced architecture requires observation and study" Miriel said.

"Ooooookay" Linnet just thought that there could have been an easier way to phrase that "how about you two?"

"I'm not opposed to tagging along with you guys, I guess" Nephenee responds getting up from her seat as well.

"I'll stay here. I'm interested in seeing who wins this thing" Sully says.

"Well if your heading off then allow me, Virion, to escort you lovely ladies to-"

"No" was the swift response from all of them as Virion attempted to come along.

"Well if this is it then let's get going" Linnet said leading the group out of their private seating area but not without turning around one last time "Chrom, Frederick, and Virion I want you three to meet me in one of the empty training arenas here in 2 hours"

"Huh? How come?" Chrom said raising an eyebrow.

"Just cause our fight isn't for another few days, doesn't mean we can afford to slack off" she said turning her head to the bespectacled mage "Miriel will you be competing in the Battle of the Khans?"

"I have research I would like to complete while I'm here, so I believe I will decline" she answered

"Alright, I guess that puts you on the team Lilina"

"M-me?" she said shocked at the news.

"Yep, Robin said it was either Miriel or you"

"Uncle did?" she said under her breath taking a look at Robin from where she was.

"Ok! Now that we got that out of the way, can we please go check out the festival now?" Lissa asked growing a little impatient.

"Alright alright, let's go everyone" and with that Linnet continued to lead the group to festival being held outside.

When they made it out of Arena Ferox everyone was pleasantly surprised at the Festival taking place outside and wondered how they could possible miss all the decorations that was set up around the town when they arrived yesterday.

Like Linnet had said, there were many stalls set up from everywhere from ones selling items and food to ones that had games for customers to play and prizes to win. Lissa was the first to start bonding towards the many attractions set up before her.

"Come on everyone let's look around" she said to them all.

Everyone followed after her and took a look around the place for anything that might catch their eye.

Over the course of their week with the Shepherds Lilina and Nephenee had tried to open up more with the people they were around. Lilina ending befriending both Lissa and Sumia during their journey to Regna Ferox, finding both of them to be the easiest to approach. The always Friendly princess and shy Pegasus knight shared interest with her so it was easy to start a conversation with them. For Nephenee, Sully and Vaike were the two she got along with the best, she didn't feel like she had to correct what she was saying around them constantly and so she allowed herself to relax in their presence and be less ashamed about the way she spoke.

Of course by allowing their selves to get closer with the people around them, they also invited the possibility for them to question them about more personal matters that they felt less than comfortable discussing. Luckily Robin came up with a solution to this problem by telling everyone that the two of them hail from Tellius, which wasn't a complete lie since Nephenee actually did come from their; albeit not from this point in time. Whenever someone would ask about their homeland Nephenee would be the one to answer, which kept the topic of Elibe far from the discussion.

However in the end they both still found their selves relying on Robin for help from time to time. In Lilina's case, despite the fact that Robin looked much younger, she couldn't help but see her uncle Mark whenever she looked at him. Her father once told her that after the conflict with the Black Fang was settled and Nergal was defeated her uncle had intended to travel elsewhere, but between being inviting to two weddings and eventually realizing his feelings for Lyn he ultimately decided to postpone his travels and stayed with her in the Sacean Plains. From there they would both visit from time to time and she would always be happy to show her uncle and auntie what she's been learning and ask them for advice when her parents didn't have the answers she needed. Of course the fact that Robin somehow shared her uncle's memories didn't really help whenever she was trying to differentiate the two.

As for Nephenee, Robin reminded her of someone she knows; well two people to be exact. The first is Ike, like him Robin shares the trait that he doesn't like to say more then he needs to, more times than not she finds that anything he does say is short and to the point without wasting time on details that are of no import. But despite that he also seems to be kind, willing to listen to anyone's problems and complaints whenever they have them and help in any way he can. He also is completely indifferent towards things such as statues which is one of the reasons she feels comfortable going to him for help. However unlike Ike, Robin behaves with logic and thinking and has a strong sense for tactics, which reminds her more of Soren. Despite the fact she and the raven haired man never really talked much with each other, even she could see his brilliance when it came to planning and it is a trait Robin shares with him in spades. All of that combined with the fact that Robin uses both magic and the sword made her feel like she was talking to some strange fusion between the two, which if she thought about it seemed weird in a way.

"So Sumia, how is the Pegasus that we found yesterday doing? We were all a little shocked when you came back to meet us riding it" Linnet asked

"She's doing much better now, all she needed was someone to tend to her wounds and some care, and she's just the sweetest thing" she answered

"You two seem to get along well, unlike with my brother when she tried to bite him" Lissa giggled remembering the event.

"She was just scared at the time, I'm sure she won't do that again"

"Still isn't kind of strange we just find a stray Pegasus out in the wild in a place where pegasi aren't typically found?" Linnet asked

"They aren't normally found around this area?" Lilina asked

"Nope, you usually find pegasi in or around Ylisse, that's why Ylisstol is known for their Pegasus knights" Linnet answered.

"Perhaps she belonged to a member of the Pegasus knights back in Ylisse, lost her old owner in a scuffle and had no choice but to run" Nephenee commented

"Oh I hope not" Sumia responded clearly not liking the possibility of an outcome like that happening.

"Enough talking like that guys, you'll sour the mood. Come on there is still lots of places to check out" Lissa says as she goes running to more stalls.

"Where does that girl get her energy?" Linnet asked herself

In the end they managed to check out about a third of the stalls at the festival, they played some of the games there and bought food to eat. Everyone, besides Linnet who had already experienced Feroxi cuisine was quite pleased with trying it out for the first time. Then Linnet looked up at the sun and determined that it was probably about time for her and Lilina to return to Arena Ferox and get started on what their strategy for the coming battle will be. When the two got back they saw that Chrom Frederick and Virion had already started training without them. Chrom and Frederick were sparring in one of the pits, while Virion was getting some target practice in. When the three of them saw the two of them approach Linnet called them over so that she could begin explaining how the fight will work.

"Alright everyone Let's get started" she said to her fellow champions "Since Flavia didn't go into detail about how this battle will work I will explain it as best I can and then after that we will go back to training"

"Isn't it just a 5 on 5 battle? Doesn't that mean the team that takes out the other side wins?" Chrom asked

"Yes and no. Although you're right about it being a 5 on 5 team battle, it's not just as simple as taking the other team out"

"How so?" Frederick questioned.

"Despite us all being named champions fighting for the Eastern Khan's side each team is still required to have a person who acts as the leader for our team. If that person is taken out, regardless of how many members we have still standing, it counts as an instant loss for our team" Linnet answered.

"I see, so we not only have to make sure that we ourselves are capable of staying out of harm, but the member of the team that aren't the leader have to work to protect them, no?" Virion commented

"Precisely" Linnet nodded her agreement.

"Meaning that our team work will be the most important part about this battle" Lilina started.

"Which is why today we are going to be working on sharpening your skills and then on the days preceding the actual fight work on formations and team synergy"

"I see, so where do you want us to start?" Chrom asked.

"Frederick, you can do your normal training routine, you already have good stamina and senses in battle so I'll just have you maintain what you already have"

"Very well" was the knight's response as he prepared his new and improve 'Frederick's Fanatical Fitness Hour'

"Virion, you also have excellent skill in your craft, so you may continue what you were doing before Lilina and I got here"

"But of course my dear Linnet, though I will now work twice of hard in your presence" with a bow he too went to work on what she asked him to.

"Lilina I'll help you with magic and Chrom I'll be doing the same for your sword play" She said to the two of them.

"Alright" Lilina replied readying a fire tome.

"Sounds good and it gives me a chance to redeem myself from last time we sparred" Chrom said grabbing his practice sword.

"Is that so? Then I guess I'll start with you then Chrom. Lilina practice you casting, I'll be over to give what pointers I can when I'm done" Linnet said with a dark smile.

"Alright, I'll go set up some targets over there then" she then left and took up her own space in the training arena.

"You ready?" Linnet asked grabbing a practice sword and taking her stance.

"Of course, don't expect this to go the same as last time" Chrom too took his stance.

…

Needless to say Chrom was bested again in their sparing sessions. This time Linnet showed less mercy then she did last time they practiced and decided to train with Chrom the same way her mother used to do with her and Robin when they were younger. This method of training was what their mother used to call 'learning from pain' where she would hit them in every opening they left for her to exploit, then after that sparring session was done she would heal them just enough for their injury to not impede their movements, but were they could still feel were they made their mistake to begin with. By using this method on Chrom he swiftly did start closing the opening he left, but not before he was left a giant walking bruise. After a while of this Chrom was successfully able to block or parry most of her attacks and even get in a few hit of his own, but not without a lot of pain to come with it.

"Good job today" Linnet said with a smile as she healed the man's bruises; completely this time.

"Something tells me you enjoyed that way more than you should have" Chrom smiled back at her.

"No of course not" she stuck her tongue out at him "Beside doesn't matter how bad I beat you cause I can always heal you back up right after, good as new"

"Like some toy you break and put back together again" Chrom sighed

That comment earned him a laugh from her "Well I'm going to help Lilina, you go along and join Frederick for the last of his training ok"

"Alright and thanks for the sparring matches" he said walking over to where Frederick was.

"No problem"

Linnet then went to over to Lilina to show her how she can improve on her magic casting, which was a bit difficult since she herself can't use anima magic, but she ultimately show her how to better manage the flow of her own magical supply and how to cast a powerful spell while spending the least amount of magical energy necessary. After a couple of hours of training the group decided to call It a day; they all got a quick lunch and went about their business afterwards.

…

" _What is this?"_ Robin found himself standing in the Plagian capital. As he stood there he could see someone running in the distance; their haste telling the urgency of the situation as he saw his white cape flap behind him.

" _Is that Chrom?"_ He saw young prince running like his life depended on it towards a cliff, then he saw a salutary figure standing there as she looked over Plagia with an expression filled with sadness.

" _Emmeryn! What is this!?"_

Then he watched as she took a step forward and began to plummet straight to the ground below, his eyes widened in shock as she did. His body grew cold at what he was witnessing, while at the same time his blood began to boil. Then it grew dark and all Robin could hear was Chrom scream for his sister and the cackling of a madman.

Robin took a sharp breath as he was jolted from his slumber by that disturbing vision, his blood still felt hot; as if fire was what was flowing through his veins. He took a few deep breathes to try to collect himself as he mulled over what he saw in his mind.

"What was that?" he asked himself as he placed a hand over his eyes.

 _It was fate Robin_ he heard someone say to him.

"G? Is that you where have you bee-" Robin took his hands from over his eyes as he addressed the man that lived in his head, but when he did he saw his own face starring back at him and paused midsentence.

 _We have much to talk about, Robin._


	10. Tournament of the King Part 2

**Why did I do this to myself! ;_; I wasn't gonna write this week because of my final project for school! But all joking aside, I just couldn't help writing this so I did. I hope you guys enjoy your thanksgiving if you celebrate it and if you don't I hope you have a good day tomorrow anyway. I hope you Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 _Tournament of the King Part 2: What We Are_

Naga and her guest where sitting across from one another discussing a few important matters and over all catching up with each other. During their little exchange the orange haired women couldn't help but notice the state her friend was in. She could tell that although she listened and spoke to her, that she wasn't all there, as if she was just going through the motions of everything around her. It was a sight that she was not used to seeing coming from the queen of the divine dragons and one that made her say what she did next.

"You know it saddens me to see you in such a state Naga, you were nowhere near this broken up when Tiki's father passed during your war with the Earth Dragon's all those Millennia ago and yet the fell dragon's vessel has you in such a state? It makes me wonder what he could have possibly did to have you pinning so"

That comment caught Naga's attention, as she huffed and pouted at her Friends words.

"You know that when it came to Tiki's father that our marriage was required of me, the divine dragons wanted me to bear a child so that if I was to lose my life in some unforeseen occurrence that there would be someone ready to take my place. And although I can't say his death didn't affect me, the feeling of lose I felt for him was that of someone I knew but not of deep affection and true love"

Naga placed a hand over her chest.

"Besides Robin was the first that I willingly gave my heart to, our time was so short; cut shorter still because of Grima's soul that was a part of him, but that time was some of the most precious I spent in my entire life. I would have hoped my _friend_ would have been able to understand that much at least" that last statement had a bit of a rougher tone in it

"I'm afraid I don't, I've never been in love myself though if this is what it brings I may never want to" The orange haired women said not trying to hide the smile on her face from seeing her friend get flustered.

Naga turn her head away from her friend, then a smile began to tug at her lips.

"So the boy is doing well, that is good to hear"

"You know, you could always look for yourself and see how he fares" The orange haired women tells her.

"You know I can't; I can't bear to see his face; to see the tome he carries that's all that's left of _**my**_ Robin" Naga stated letting her sadness show on her face once more.

The room grew silent after that; Naga was once again peering out into the world that she was helping to rebuild, a world Robin sacrificed himself for so that the people still living in it could have their future back.

" _Always putting others before himself and not thinking about how that will affect the people around him, my love was such a fool"_ The topic of Robin had brought her to tears; she didn't even realize the floodgates had broken until her tears had hit the hand she rested her chin on _"So what does that make me I wonder?"_

The orange haired women watched as her friend began to cry, presumably for her other half, as she stared out into space. She wanted to help, she really did, but this concept was a little beyond her. She cared for the people she watch over as well, yes that was true, and long ago when they began to fight she tried with all of her might to make them see reason; but in the end her 'help' ended up doing more harm than good and she lost herself in the process. She understood what it meant to care and love for those she watched over as a parent would do a child, but not as to love another the same way her friend had, and so she decided to let her get what she needed out. This continued for some time and then the two began to hear noises coming from elsewhere in the temple. The noises began to draw closer and closer until two figures came into the room they were in, one with a little more enthusiasm then the other.

"Mother I'm back!" A young green hair child shouted as she came bounding in, she ran to her mother and gave her a hug.

Naga put one arm around her daughter and used her other to stroke her hair "Welcome home dear, how was your trip with your sister?"

"It was so much fun! Sis was showing me how to use my powers more, then we went flying and visited some villages, and I got to play tag with some of the kids, it was great" she said bursting with energy.

Tiki took a few more steps into the room "I'm sorry mother, I tried to keep her from rushing in as she did, but she got ahead of me"

"Ah Tiki, it's nice to see you once more" they orange haired women stated as she turn to great the manakete.

Tiki's eyes widened as she saw the guest her mother currently had in the room with her, she swiftly recomposed herself and greeted the women, and then she turned her attention back to her sister "Morgan"

She turned her head "yes?"

"It would seem we have interrupted something important, come, you can talk to mother later"

"O-okay" Morgan said letting go of her mother and walking back over to her sister. Tiki gave one last nod to the two women in the room, then she took Morgan to different portion of the temple.

"So that's the child you had. Is she going to be alright? Sharing divine and fell blood?"

Naga turned back to her friend "She will have much to discover about herself in the future, but she should be fine"

"I see" the women's face grew serious "then I think it's about time we talk about what I truly came here for"

"And what would that be?" Naga questioned.

"It's about the Robin of the other timeline. He had that outburst a couple of years back, but since then he has been tame…well until recently that is"

"You don't mean to say?"

"I do. His blood is now awakening and since that is the case he will need it sooner rather than later"

Naga nodded in understanding, then she raised her hand slightly and gathered power into her palm, after a short while the power faded and what was left was a white tear shaped stone roughly the same size as her own hand.

"I trust you will get this to him then?" Naga asked.

The orange haired women grabbed the stone and took a look at it "Are you sure this will work? He may have divine dragon blood in his veins, but his body is not that of a divine dragon"

"It won't, that is put one half of what is needed for him; the other half will be given to him by a mutual acquaintance of ours"

"I see, that's if he wakes up from his somber under the earth though" she said as she opened a portal and prepared to depart.

She turned back to Naga.

"I guess I should get going then, I told those two long ago I wouldn't always be there to help them, but I still need to watch over them at least"

"Thanks again for all of your help and…." A sincere smile grew on Naga's face "I didn't say it last time, but welcome back Ashunera"

The goddess smiled back to her "Thank you" she said as she proceeded to go through her portal, then she paused and turn her neck slightly back in Naga's direction "His soul still lives you know"

Naga gasped out "what?"

"Maybe that will get a certain someone to stop mobbing around and actual take a look at the world she hopes to save" and with that the goddess walked through the portal and left Naga to think about the knowledge she gave.

Naga placed a hand to her chest once more "It can't be can it? Do you still live...Robin?"

 _ **Regna Ferox-main timeline**_

Robin stared in shock as he looked at the man in front of him. G, who Robin could normally only ever see in his mind was looking down at him from over the bed. He looked exactly as he normally did whenever Robin saw him. He had his same white hair and red eyes; and he still wore the black and purple robes with gold trim, just as Robin's mother did, however something was off. Unlike the many times Robin had seen him in his mind before, G had a strange blue glow around him and seemed to be slightly transparent. He was also giving off an immense amount of magic power? Or was it just pure energy? Robin didn't know what it could be but it was dense whatever it was and it felt as if it was suffocating him as it bathed over his body. His blood continued to boil as he felt the power wash over him and seep inside, then his dark room seemed to brighten up slightly. He took a look out the window and saw the sun had not yet peeked its head out and yet his vision became so clear in the darkness. As Robin tried to comprehend what was going on G began to speak.

' _It would seem I've been gone for some time, have you been well in my absence?'_

"G what's going on? Why can I see you outside my head right now?"

' _Because my soul has grown stronger now, no, it would be better to say that it has recovered from the damage that was done to it somewhat'_

"What are you talking about?"

' _First I need you to answer me, has there been anything strange going on with you since my slumber?'_

"The way I see the memory fragments now…it's different, as if I'm living them rather than watching them; however it's only happened a few times since you disappeared"

' _No physical changes?'_ he questioned.

Robin looked through his room, no fire lit in the fireplace, no candle still burning, and no sun light shining through his window and yet he could see clearly.

"My eyes…I can see as clear as day in this dark room. G what have you done? You remember something don't you? What is going on with me?" Robin breathes started to get shallower as the over whelming power suffocated him, continuing to make its way inside as his body felt as if it were ablaze.

' _First calm down. Take deep breathes, the power your feeling is your own and right now your letting it consume you'_

Robin did as he said, he calmed his body down as best he could and started to breath slowly; as he did he felt the heat start to subside and the suffocating feeling go away.

After Robin felt some sense of normalcy return to his body he turned back to G.

"Explain what's happening to me" Robin demanded.

' _Take a look at your right hand, specifically your brand'_

Robin complied and raised his right hand, the brand looked much the same; the same six eyes staring back at him and the same blue hue it glowed. But then he took another look at the color and noticed something off, mix in with its normal blue was a hint of green.

"It's changing color?"

' _No the green hue you see is mixing in'_

"I don't get it" Robin said looking confused

' _It's a sign of your awakening'_

"Awakening? And what am I waking up exactly?"

G closed eyes and took a breath thinking very carefully about how he was going to explain this.

' _Robin, do you know what Grima is? What it truly is?'_

"How does this answer my question?" he asked a bit annoyed

' _Humor me'_

Robin sighed "A dragon of immense power, capable of destroying whole armies at once, wishes to wipe all life from this world and can be brought back through his vessels if they share a strong enough blood tie with him like me and Linnet"

' _Yes that is all true, but haven't you ever questioned where Grima came from? Better yet what kind of dragon Grima is'_

Robin shook his head no, he never considered _what_ Grima was, he just knew that Grima would bring ruin if he was revived. That Linnet or himself would become an architect of destruction if Grima took their bodies.

' _You asked me what I remember and so I'll tell you. I Remember Grima, what he truly is and how he came into this world; and why I am here now, or I at least remember part of it'_ a sad look came to his face at that last part.

Robin Nodded for him to continue.

' _You see most people Believe that Grima first appeared a thousand years ago during the time of the first exalt, but that's not true at all. Grima's story starts before that; and it didn't start in Ylisse, it started in Valm back when it was still known as Valentia'_

"In Valm?" Robin was surprised by this news.

' _Long ago in Valentia there was a dark alchemist named Forneus who had two goals he wanted to achieve, one was to bring back the dead to use them as soldiers and two was to create the prefect being. He ended up achieving both his goals, his undead soldier came in the form of what you now call the risen and as for the prefect being that was-'_

"Grima…" Robin said piecing it together.

' _Yes, you see he created Grima using two very important ingredients, first he collected divine dragon blood, or I should say it was provided to him for his experiments before he was named "the Demon Alchemist". Next he mixed the blood with the corpse of and earth dragon and then to bind everything together he infused it with dark energy'_

"So Grima is just some madman's creation?" Robin asked

' _Yes, but simply being created into this world was not enough to sustain what Forneus created. It lacked thought, emotion, and refused to move. To fix this problem Forneus mixed his own blood with the creature; and that's when it started, when Grima took Forneus' body for his own, for that was the day a blood pact had been made; A blood pact that corrupted an already unstable being that was never meant to exist in this world'_

"So me and my sister are going through _this_ because some man long ago decided he wanted to play god?" he asked frustration pouring from his words.

' _As you noticed before your brand glows blue, which is a sign of your untainted divine dragon blood flowing throw your veins. As for the green that is now making its presence known, that would be your earth dragon side'_

"And what of my sister? Her brand has a purple hue to it, what about her?"

' _A sign of corrupted fell blood, meaning that she still has ties to Grima's soul'_

"And me?" Robin asked still trying to wrap is mind around all of this "what does this mean for me? How come I'm different?"

' _Because I severed your ties to the fell dragon long ago'_

"When you first appeared…"

' _I had no memory at the time, I still don't remember everything, but Robin If I said I was you; A different you from a different timeline in which Grima claimed me, what would you think?'_

"If you had told me this 2 weeks ago, I would have said you've lost your wits, but now after Nephenee and maybe even Lilina, I don't know what to think" Robin thought for a moment "but wait if Grima claimed you, wouldn't that mean-?"

' _That I was once Grima? Yes it does, But I somehow destroyed Grima's soul along with my physical body and gave all of the fell dragon's power to you through the tome you now carry'_

"So that power I was feeling earlier?"

' _Like I said, it is your own. Of course when it was first given to you, your body was too weak to contain it; however, even without my memories, my subconscious managed to seal your power away. If it didn't one of two things would have happened, either you would have died then and there or you would have degenerated and destroyed all of Valm'_

"Degenerated? But that's something that happens to dragons that don't put their power into dragon stones"

' _After everything I just told you Robin do you really believe your still human? I'm sorry, but that was a price I paid staking your life. I gave you this power so that you could stop a great threat to come and your humanity was forfeited because of it'_

Robin let his head sink, his bangs covered his eyes as he heard his words.

"And here I thought, I'd only ever stop being human if the Grimeal ever caught me _"_ Robin looked back up at him rage starting to form inside him "So what is it? What's so important that my humanity had to be taken away to deter it?"

' _That I do not remember'_ G said in a slightly sadder tone.

"BULLSHIT!" Robin went to grab G by his shirt but found that his hand passed through him "your sitting here telling me that you gave away **my** humanity and that you can't even remember why you did it!"

Silence filled the room.

"So what do you remember huh? You claimed that what I saw in my dream was fate, what was that supposed to mean? Why did Emmeryn willingly jump to her death? Why was she even in Plegia? You know that much at least don't you!?"

' _I know not why or how it comes to that, but I do know this'_ he paused for a moment a blank look formed on his face as he told Robin the truth _'In the end she always dies, I've seen it countless time now'_

"So you're telling me I fail? I fail to keep her safe? That I fail to keep her alive?" Robin just let his face sag, his mind wouldn't let him stay angry anymore. "Just like with them"

Robin got up from off the bed and slipped on his shirt, pants, boots and cloak; he then made his way to the door and started to walk out.

"I need to clear my mind, please just…just leave me some time for my own thoughts"

G understood and left Robin to stew over what he was told.

As Robin walked through the halls of Arena Ferox he saw a few early risers preparing for their day, In fact he could have sworn he saw both Frederick and Stahl going in different directions as he was walked on; Frederick likely wanting to get a head start on his training and Stahl more than likely trying to be the first in line in the mess hall. He continued walking until he found himself outside, he tilted his head upward and stared at the dark morning sky as if it had the answers.

" _It's clear, I guess this change to my eyes is permanent" he thought as his eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light outside._

"Getting some fresh air?" came a voice coming from behind the young tactician.

As he turned around Robin saw Chrom approaching him, the young prince stopped right next to him and looked up to the sky as well.

"Just gathering my thoughts" Robin replied

"Somethings weighing on you huh? I guess that makes the both of us. Let me guess…" Chrom put his hand up to his chin in mock thought "Your mind is currently flooded with thoughts of that swordswomen who won the bracket yesterday right?"

"HUH!?" Robin turned to him in shock "where in Naga's name did you get that idea from!? Better yet how in hell did you even come to the conclusion that I fancy her to begin with!?"

Chrom laughed at his reaction and then slapped him on the shoulder "haha besides the fact that we could literally see swooning over her from the stands, Flavia told us of your crush after the days fighting had ended" he answered with a very snarky grin.

"I was **not** swooning!" he sighed and put a hand to his forehead "and of course Flavia would say something"

Robin then calmed himself down and put on a small smile, Chrom's little jab managed to lighten his mood a bit.

"I actually have other matters on my mind at the moment" Robin told him.

"Anything you willing to talk about? If it's something that's bothering you, you can always bend my ear" he said giving Robin a reassuring smile.

Robin took it into consideration, he might not have wanted to talk about what G had told him about, but maybe telling someone else about what he's gone through over the past few years would be okay; then he thought better of it and decided that, that might not be the best idea.

"There's no way I can burden you with my troubles" Robin sullenly said.

"Nonsense, after all I'm burdening you and Linnet with my own by having you join me and helping with our issues with Plegia"

Chrom's expression grew slightly darker.

"Or I should say, I'm burdening you two with a problem passed on to us by our father" Chrom said with clear distain in his voice.

"Your father attacked Plegia to wipe out the Grimeal, right?" Robin questioned "The tales of the conflict were spread even to Valm, though we only ever heard so much since a body of water separated us from what was going on"

Chrom sighed "My father was obsessed with getting rid of the cult, he let his obsession blind him to the point where he never could separate the innocent lives he took from the ones he wished to claim. He did it all because he believe that our blood gave him the right to choose who lives and who dies and because of his arrogance me and my sisters had to suffer the aftermath when he pasted"

Chrom clutched his fist and there was rage clear to see on his face. At this Robin but a hand on his shoulder.

"That must have been tough" he said

"It was, but we always had each other to share strength from to pull us through" Chrom turned to Robin "Something I believe you and your sister share as well"

Robin smiled at that and then he let it fade from his face.

"Your father's goals were twisted if you ask me" Robin said.

"I don't blame you for saying that" Chrom nodded.

"However there was one thing I can agree with him on"

"Huh?" Chrom questioned not expecting that to come out of his mouth next "and what would that be?"

A dark expression grew on his face "The Grimeal is pure evil, they take what the claim is theirs and destroy anything that gets in their way"

"Robin…" Chrom said in a small voice, he had never seen the greenette look like this.

Robin sighed "You see we were attacked by the Grimeal before, believe it or not their influence spreads far and wide; way farther then just Plegia. We lost a lot when they attacked, many people that were like family to us, and in the end we could do nothing to stop it"

"…" Chrom didn't know what to say.

"You may have noticed, but me and Linnet can be a bit standoffish at times when we want to be. That's mainly because after that happened we left our home to go and find anything we could on the cult and strike back at them and because of that we've only really had each other for the last few years" Robin thought back on what he said "Well we might have had Virion and a couple of others that we consider friends in Valm too, but for the most part it's been just us"

"Well I hope you don't feel that way now, know that so long as your with us that the Shepherds will be at your side"

Robin smiled "I believe you, not only because I wish to follow you as my leader, but also because over the past week and a half we've known each other, as short as that time should seem, you've become a good friend"

Chrom smiled back at him "As have you, one that I am happy to have made"

"You also have gotten my sister to smile more, which she rarely used to do when it was just us, so that's a plus" Then it was Robin's turn to tease him "Although most of the time her joy is greatly associated with your pain after a sparring session"

Chrom winced "Don't remind me, she healed me up yesterday, but my body still remembers the hits she inflicted"

Robin laughed "Just be glad she hasn't gotten to the point where she throws figs at you, I dread it anytime she puts her hand in the pocket she carries them" a chill ran down his spine just thinking about it.

"Hahaha that sounds like quite the ordeal, but it can't be that bad?" Chrom questioned.

Robin gave him a face he recognized, for it was the face he often wore after training with her.

"Is it worse then sparring with her?"

"Far worse"

At that a chill ran down Chrom's spine just imaging it. For a moment the two just stood there with Grim looks on their faces at knowing how terrifying Linnet could be, then they grabbed each other's shoulders and began to burst out into laughter. After they calmed down they both looked up and saw the sun had rose into the sky.

"Guess we've been talking here for a while now huh?" Robin asked.

"It looks like" Chrom answered.

"Then I should get going, I have another set of matches to watch today"

"It must be hard being a 'king'" Chrom joked.

"Very funny, But no. I'm finding I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would"

"Well that's good to hear, hmmm?" Chrom took a closer look at Robin.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Interesting" he took a closer look to make sure his eyes weren't playing ticks on him "Robin this might be a stupid question, but your pupils? Have they always been slitted like that?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Have your eyes always been like that of a reptile"

" _What!?"_ Robin pulled out his tome and summoned a mirror from it.

"You carry a mirror in your tome?" Chrom questioned raising an eye brow.

"It's for when we're on the road and not now Chrom I'm checking something"

Robin took a look in the mirror and saw that Chrom was right, his pupils had indeed become cat/snake like in nature.

"Just like his" Robin said as his expression soured.

"Like who?" Chrom asked with concern.

Robin put the Mirror away "No one" he turned from him "anyway I must get going, I'll see you around"

"Yeah see you" Chrom told him in return

As Robin walked away he said one last thing "And thanks for the talk, my head feels lighter now"

He smiled once again "Anytime" he said more to himself as he watch his tactician leave.

…

Olivia nervously stood in the center of the arena preparing to speak to the people present today.

"H-hello…everyone a-and welcome to the s-second day of the tournament of the king" she got out as best she could.

"W-would the f-first challengers p-please make their way to the fighting z-zone"

"Another day of fights in Arena Ferox" Flavia said with a smile "I kinda wish I could join in on the fun as well, don't you too Robin?"

"Huh? Oh…yeah right" Robin managed to get out.

"Something bothering you?"

"Nothing, just thinking" Robin then turned his attention back to the arena.

The first two fighters for the day made their way into the arena. The first was a mercenary named Vergo, he was a man in his early 30s that Robin had fought a few times while he stayed in Ferox. He is larger man who relies on his size and strength to overwhelm his opponent and he had a decent record in the arena. The second combatant was shrouded under a cloak that cover their head and most of their upper body. From what Robin could tell from looking at this person's frame, he assumed that it was a young girl; she was short and if he had to guess couldn't be any older then 15, in her hand she carried a short ax and under her cloak along her lower back was a short sword. The two stopped and faced each other in the middle of the arena.

"Great my first match of the day and I'm fighting a kid" Vergo said more to himself then to his opponent.

The girl put out her hand "Let's have a good match okay"

Vergo smiled at the gesture and received her hand in his own and shook it "Yeah let's, just know that I won't hold back on you"

Robin looked at the aura around the cloaked girl.

" _Interesting, it's very bubbly. Energetic."_ He thought

"If the combatants are ready then the fight may begin" Robin said signal the two to start.

With that the two fighters put some distance between their selves and took their stances. Vergo held his silver sword forward, while the cloaked girl did the same with her ax. Vergo was the first to make a move; while charging in he came at the girl with a horizontal swing to her right side, to counter this the girl put her ax in a block position.

*Clang*

The girl then tilted her ax slightly downward, allowing Vergo's sword to glide down her ax's blade, then she took a swing of her own to his left. Vergo put up his left arm and let his steal arm guard take the hit as he brought his blade back up to strike at her again, her reply was to swiftly bring her ax back then hook his sword under the head of her ax and divert the strike to the side of her body.

"Looks like you're better than I gave you credit for, you might prove to be a challenge" Vergo said to her.

"Don't be too shocked when you lose" she said back.

"The young lass is pretty good, she's holding her own even with a weapons' disadvantage" Basilio said as he watched the two.

Robin watched the two fight closely, the girl was doing well, she parried or dodged with ease and struck when her opponent when an opening was presented. But something about the way she fought was off. Then it dawned on him.

"She's holding back" Robin said.

"So you noticed it too?" Flavia said.

"The young lass has been reading Vergo's moves the whole time. The way she's fighting, she studying him" Basilio added.

Vergo went after the girl with a powerful overhead slash.

*THOOFFF!* his sword kicked up dirt as it slammed into the ground missing its target.

"That's not good, mister" the girl rushed in quickly before Vergo could move and held his arm in place with frightening strength.

"Hey let go" he said.

"First of all you're relying too much on brute force, you're swinging your sword without taking into account balancing yourself out" she kicked him in the back of the one of his knees forcing him to widen his stance "that strike would have been more effective had you lowered your stance and focused on your center of gravity so that after this attack was over you could have come at me with a follow up quicker. Also with how tall you are, lowering your stance is smart in general since you're likely to get knocked to the ground if you don't"

She then knocks him on his back to prove her point.

"You going to call the match?" Basilio asked.

Robin smiled "No I think she's teaching him something"

Vergo stood up and readied himself again, although he was frustrated he couldn't help but smile at the audacity of someone younger then him teaching him something. He gave another attempt at attacking the cloaked girl, but right when his sword was about to make contact she vanished.

"Where'd she?"

"Another thing. You also should always look out for is what your opponent might be able to do. Since your larger then me I know I stand no chance in a head to head fight, but since I'm smaller I have more mobility and can move much faster than you"

Vergo turned around to see the girl stand right behind him, then he looked down and saw that he had been cut across his chest and could feel a gash along his back as well.

He couldn't help but laugh as he dropped his weapon to the ground.

"It looks like I'm outed classed" he said "oi king, you can go ahead and call the match"

And with that Robin called the match over.

"You're really good, I'm impressed" Vergo said to her.

"Thank you, you weren't so bad yourself" she replied.

"I thought so too, now I'm not so sure" he pick up his sword and sheathed it "so does the one who bested me have a name?"

"Sorry, I kind of have an important mission right now and I can't exactly blow my cover"

"And so you thought the smartest thing for you to do was to be a part of a tournament for everyone to see?" Vergo asked with a raising his eye brow.

She put a hand to the back of her head and rubbed it "I thought it would be fun"

Vergo laughed at that. Then he put out his hand once more.

"The names Vergo, it's a pleasure to meet you and next to we meet I pray that it be as a allies"

She shook his hand "likewise"

Then they both went their separate ways back into the colosseum. As the cloaked girl walked the halls of the arena a masked person stood leaning against one of them waiting.

"Luc- I mean Marth, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Meet with me after this bracket is over, we need to talk" Marth told her.

"R-right, okay I'll see you" she answer back, then continued on her way back to the waiting area until her next match was called.

…

Just like the day before, the Tournament was long, but enjoyable to watch. In the end the cloaked girl beat out the entire bracket, 'teaching' people as she did, which Robin found funny and helped to take his mind of what he heard earlier that morning. After everything was over Robin decided to change his clothes like he did last time and head back to the arena to do his training routine. This time he was by himself as he swung the steel sword he got off the weapons' rack around.

He had already done his Practice swings and was now cutting at some wooden dummies, when he heard someone approaching from behind him and he went on his guard turning around.

"Careful there, I just came to get some late night training done" Ayra said as she put her arms up in mock surrender.

Robin lowered his sword and smiled at the Ravened haired women.

"When I first saw you, I never imaged you be the type to crack jokes" Robin said.

"I could say the say for you, I didn't think you could have such an expression on your face when I saw you yesterday" she told him, which made him wonder what exactly it was he looked like "Something on your mind Reflet?"

He sighed "It's just been a long day"

He told her as he brought his attention back to his training dummies.

"I see" Ayra then went over to the weapons rack and grabbed a practice sword.

"Reflet" she called out to him.

"Hmm?" Robin turned back to where she was and saw the tip of a practice sword being thrusted at his head. On reflex he tilted his head out of the way and…

*SLICE*

*SLICE*

*SLICE*

Cut the practice sword apart in three quick swings of his silver sword. The three pieces that it was cut into making a 'thud' sound as they hit the ground leaving only the handle of it in Ayra's hand.

"Hey what was that for?" Robin questioned.

"I knew it. I knew when I saw you that you were skilled"

She said as she drew the sword that was attached to her belt and pointed it at Robin.

"Reflet, I can see now that you are a worthy opponent, I challenge you to a dual"

All Robin could get out was "Huh!?"

 **Elsewhere…**

Grima and the man in purple robes continue on their journey to recruit the key members of their forces.

"Are we close Grima?"

Grima had a displeased look on his face as he thought to himself.

This only served to anger the robed man.

"Answer me, you worm" he demanded.

"Silence you're yourself, your annoying voice only serves to disturb my concentration" Grima spoke

"What was that?" he brought his large hand to Grima's neck once more digging his large pointy black nails in as he did.

Grima didn't even pay him any mind as he began to chant some strange spell.

"Come to me and serve me once more" Grima said as a large dark magic circle appeared on the ground and a women in armor was summoned forth.

The man in purple robes narrowed his eyes at this "A deadlord? Just like Loptry used to summon" he said

"How may I be of service master" she said.

"I sense that something is off, I can no longer connect to my main vessel. I want you to journey back to Plegia and join that fool Validar when he attempts to assassinate the one who carries Naga's blood in a few weeks' time" He grew a dark smile on his face "and don't be afraid to bring me back his head if his news is less then satisfying"

"I understand master, I Simia will see to it that this task is done" and with that she left making her way back to Plegia on her master's orders.

Grima turn to his 'companion' "as for your question we're already here"

Grima pointed in the distance where a figure sitting on a rock could be seen staring out into the distance. The robed man Dropped Grima from his grip and they both approached this person. As they got closer they saw it was women with long white hair and short pointed ears, she heard the two come closer to her and turned her head to reveal her heterochromic eyes, one red and one green.

"So we final meet demon dragon" Grima spoke "You'll be coming with us, your power will be a great asset to our cause"

* * *

 **I'll see you guys next time and again enjoy your holiday ;)**


	11. The Library

**A/N:Hey guys, I got a new chapter for ya. It would have been longer but I still have some school stuff to wrap up, but I liked what I had so far and it felt complete enough so I decided to give you it, instead of making you wait another week. As always I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

 ** _The Library_**

The air began to shift within the shrine dedicated to the goddess of dawn. Space started to blur and warp, as if the air was hot and causing everything in view to appear wavy as a portal opened up. What came out of the portal first was a head of bright orange hair that rivaled the morning sun in color, followed by eyes that matched her hair, then a light blue dress that flowed with her every movement as Ashunera came back from her visit with her friend, divine stone in hand.

"Welcome back Lady Ashunera" came a voice to greet the returning goddess.

Ashunera casted a glance to her side to see who was greeting her and smiled upon seeing the face of her dear friend.

"Lehran, I do hope I was not gone too long"

He shook his head "Of course not, then again what is time really to beings that can cross through it and to different spaces as well or to those that have lived as long as we?"

Ashunera closed her eyes and gave him an agreeing nod before opening them again slightly and giving him a more serious look.

"I assume you have retrieved what I requested then?"

"Of course" Lehran said as he outstretched his arm, aforementioned item in hand "but are you truly sure that giving him this is necessary?"

Ashunera glided her long dainty finger across the object in Lehran's hands before taking it in her own and raised it above her face to get a better look at it. What she held was a medallion, teal in color, it had silver detailing in its inner circular portion that made a flower like patter in it, jotting out of the inner circular piece was triangular spikes and pillar like poles that were reminiscent to a compass rose in design, and it was completed with an out circular piece from which the triangular spikes and poles poked out of in a round bump around it, with the exception of the three largest spike parts that ran all the way through it and ended in a point.

"I am sure" Ashunera started as she took a glance at the divine stone in her other hand "whether it be from arrogance or naiveté, Naga still believes herself and Grima to be on equal footing in terms of power. It was once true that long ago the two of them were like two halves of the same coin, neither really be able to do anything against the other, but as time went on Grima's power started to surpass her own, so much so that he's even managed to kill her in some of the other timelines. I fear that a normal Dragon stone won't be enough to contain that boy's power"

"So you're willing to give him our fire emblem to achieve that?"

"Since I was defeated all those years ago and have returned it has served no other use, I see no problem parting with it for a greater cause" she touched the medallion to the stone and it started glowing as the stone was absorbed into it "besides, unlike dragon stones, this can't be destroyed"

Lehran nods "If this is what you choose I won't oppose you on this"

She smiles towards him and opens another portal "Thank you for understanding"

"Heading off again?"

"Yes, I still require an earth stone from someone that I'm…..less then looking forward to seeing again, before I can give this to Robin"

"So you're off to see him I see, is there anything else that you need of me?"

"Not at the moment, however there may be some time in the near future that I may ask you to go and help Robin, Linnet, and their friends, will you do that if I ask it of you?"

Lehran closed his eyes "After everything that I did in the past, you should know you can ask anything of me"

"You have long since paid back those dues and as such have the right to refuse anything I ask of you should you find it to be to your disliking" Ashunera assured him.

Lehran looked to her once more "Then if you ask it of me, I will help them of my choosing" he replied to her.

"I see, thank you then" and then she headed to her next destination from her portal.

* * *

"Reflet I challenge you to a duel"

"Huh?"

Robin just stood there and stared at the women in front of him in awe. With sword in hand pointed directly at him and resolve burning in her amethyst eyes as she challenged him to a fight with much audacity. Robin's mouth hang open as he tried to process what was going on, no one has ever just straight up asked to fight him like this before without other things happening to lead up to it, so at the moment he was at a loss for a response. Robin's body began to shake as he stabbed the silver sword he was practicing with into the ground, his lips curling up into a grin.

"pfft"

"I sorry what was that?" Ayra asked.

"ha, ha ha…..HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" Robin clutched at his sides as he bellowed out a loud laugh that filled the practice area they were in.

"Huh? D-did I say something funny?" Arya asked with a combination of both shock and annoyance at the man's sudden laughter.

Robin put up one of his hands from his reeled over position in front of the swords women as he continued to let his laughter flow out.

"HAHAHAhahaha..hahaha…ha…I-I'm sorry haha" Robin composed himself as best he could and looked back up towards Ayra "With how my day started, between being given less than savory news, having somewhat of a heart to heart with my friend, watching a little girl give combat advice to people twice her age in a tournament, and then now just being challenge to a fight myself, I just couldn't help but laugh"

Robin gripped the handle of the silver sword that he embedded into the ground a minute ago and ripped it out, before walking in the opposite direction of his challenger.

"As for your challenge, I'll have to politely refuse it, sorry"

Ayra's expression sour slightly upon hearing him say that.

"If I may ask, why do you refuse my challenge? Is it because you don't see me as a worthy opponent?" she asked.

" _It's actually because I'm not allowed to fight anyone while the tournament is going on, but I can't tell you that" Robin thought to himself._

"I'm not arrogant enough to see anyone as unworthy of fighting against, especially someone as skilled as you are, that being said I can't fight you because that would defeat the point of my vacation here in Ferox, which is to relax" Robin said hoping she would buy his lie.

"And yet you're training even though you're on vacation?" Ayra asked sheathing her blade.

"It's more out of habit then anything" Robin said as he returned the silver sword he used back to the weapon's rack "besides at this point it's more like exercise to me then it is training and it helps relax me just as much as doing anything else I like does"

Ayra didn't like the fact that she was refused, but at the same time she could not argue a reason for him to duel her, so she let the matter go for now.

"I take it you're leaving now since you put up your sword?" she asked him

" _I wanted to get some ax and magic practice in too, but something tells me I should avoid that while she's here"_

"Yes I think I will take my leave, I have been here from quite some time now, as you maybe be able to guess" Robin stated motioning his hand towards the pile of broken practice dummies in the corner of the practice field they were in.

Ayra nodded "Then I guess I'll be seeing you around, Reflet"

"Yeah seeya" Robin said as he turned on his heel and starting walking away.

Ayra stood there and watched the man walk off, she was half temper to pull her sword out and force him to fight her. Where did the urge to face this man come from? Well the obvious answer would be when she first met him yesterday night, but that was not quite right. When she first saw Reflet he didn't look like much to her. Yeah at first glance he looked strong enough, he looked to be in shape from what she could see of the muscle definition in his forearms; which were bare to see with his one rolled up one ripped off shirt sleeves, and he had a slim build, with broad chest and shoulders, but Ayra knew looks could be deceiving especially with how lack luster the fights she had during her time in the tournament were in comparison with some of the other fights she's had in her life.

But Ayra could tell that there was more to Reflet, in fact every fiber of her being screamed that to her. For starters, despite the fact that Reflet seemed to be awkward when she first laid eyes on him, something about him bugged her, something that she didn't realize until after he had went over to grab a weapon off the rack the night prior. He had managed to sneak up on her. She may have been in the middle of her training at the time, but if there is one thing that she knew never to do after everything she has experienced, it was to not let her guard down no matter where she was, and yet he had not only managed to get close to her, but also not let his presence be known until he said something that drew attention to him. Then he grabbed a sword and started swinging and she knew for sure that he was different. It wasn't just the power with which he swung his sword with, nor was it the speed, nor was it one little thing that any novice who looked at him could call out just by glance. No, from the way he held his stance, from the way he gripped his blade, to the focus he held as he cut through the air, and even to the way he breathed as he swung, she could tell every meticulous movement that he made was not only practiced, but also polished through experience. Finally there was his eyes, his blood red eyes that held in them something that she recognized. They held sorrow, anger, and loss, something that told her that he went through something similar in his life that she is going through now, but more that he had determination, passion, and resolve in his eyes that hid his pain from those not looking for it.

It was all of this that made her want to fight him, which made her want to test her resolve against his own. She wanted to understand him through the crossing of their swords and she felt that by fighting him that she would be able to break past her own limits, to ascend to greater strengths that would allow her to push to a whole new level.

" _I swear, we will battle Reflet"_ she thought to herself as she finally saw his silhouette fade into one of the dark corridors of Arena Ferox.

…

Robin decide to call it a night, so after a quick bath, he went back to his room for some much needed sleep.

" _Where am I now?"_ Robin asked himself as he stood in the new space created in his own mind.

Robin stood in some kind of large library, one that seemed to be vastly larger and more expansive then any he has ever been in before, even the library back at the palace in Ylisstol paled in comparison. Its floors were made of a white marble that was trimmed in gold, its walls were lined with books that filled its shelves from both length and width in all directions, its ceiling was multi domed shaped and had mosaics made of glass that let in colorful light and paintings adorned upon it; all of which seem to be telling different kinds of stories or giving visual representations of history. Robin was awestruck at the place he was in right now, in all of his life having his visions, he had never seen this multi-floored jewel before and apart of him wanted nothing more than to explore the walls of the space that was surely filled to the brim with knowledge, but another part of him knew that he wasn't just brought here for no reason; so Robin starting exploring this place of wonder.

" _This place is amazing, is this also one of G's memories?"_ Robin said to himself as he looked to see whether or not his counterpart was with him.

" _I guess he's not here, huh?"_

As Robin was walking a tiny orb of light start to float near his face, upon closer inspection the light orb actually had two tiny wings that it used to fly.

" _Hey cut that out"_ Robin says as he tries to swat the thing away, to which it flutters away slightly and then stops a few feet away from him.

" _What is it? Do you want me to follow you?"_

At that the orb of light began to make its way farther down one of the libraries many halls.

" _Hey wait up"_ Robin said as he began to follow.

The light continued to guide Robin through the shelves of the library, stopping every so often to make sure he was following. Eventually the two of them reached a reading area filled with fancy tables and plush chairs that would insure the comfort of anyone wishing to enjoy reading a book or taking a nap while they were here. As Robin let his eyes wonder a bit he notices the light hover over one of the tables and decides to draw closer, as he does he sees three books resting there.

" _These are!?"_

* * *

" _Hey mom what are doing?"_ a child asks his mother after his training was done.

" _Oh this?"_ she turned to give her child her full attention _"It's my research"_

" _What kind of research?"_

She smiled to her son then ushered him over so he could see, which he did by taking a seat on her lap.

" _I'm study magic, to be more precise I'm studying the possibility of ice magic"_

" _Ice magic? Is that even possible?"_

She patted his head _"Of course it's possible, just like all other types magic once were, it just requires someone to study and make it"_

" _So what are these?"_ he pointed to the three books that rest on her desk.

" _These are spells that can create ice, however they are all considered wind magic"_ she pulls the books over and shows them off one by one _"the first and most basic is Blizzard, using the wind to create a flow of ice that travels along the ground until it hits it targets"_

" _Wow"_

" _Next we have Fimbulvetr, this spell allows it caster to hit his or her foe with a blast of ice, it often takes the form the of a small tornado; creating a mini snow storm inside upon contact"_

" _I see, so this one relies heavily on its connection to wind to work?"_

" _Precisely"_ she pulls up the final book _"Last but not least is the most power spell that creates ice, in fact it's one of the strongest wind tomes in the world, and this is of course Rexcalibur, it is the only one of its kind in the world"_

" _So cool, mom how did you get this one?"_

She grimaced a bit at that question _"Let's just say your father and his family has ways of getting their hands on things they shouldn't be taking"_

" _O-okay, but if there is already spells that create ice, then why go through the trouble of making ice magic?"_

She smiled at her son's logically question _"Well for starter by separating the element of ice away from wind, we can determine how strong it would be on its own. Given the fact that ice can only be achieve through stronger wind spells we can assume that it as an element is actually much stronger than wind is in terms of power, just like fire and thunder are"_

Her son nodded as he listened to her speak of her theory

" _Also by making the ice element its own separate school of magic, rather than just a byproduct of a couple certain wind spells, we could in theory increase the destructive power of these three spells here tenfold"_

" _Hey mom, is it okay if I help you with your research? I think I would like to see true ice magic one day"_

" _Hmm, I don't know, I mean you already have so much to do between all your train and tactics studies already, I just don't think you would have time to help"_

" _Oh"_ Robin was a little crestfallen hearing that.

" _Then again you already have a good grasp on all of the other anima types of magic and dark magic, and you're surly not going to be learning how to preform light or healing magic anytime soon"_

" _Then does that mean…"_

" _Sure thing, starting tomorrow…"_

* * *

' _Your magic training will consist of helping me develope ice magic'_

On the table were three spell tomes that had light blue covers and radiated magical energy that cooled the air around them. They were the ice variants of the Blizzard, Fimbulvetr, and Rexcalibur spell that Robin helped his mother create all those years ago.

" _Now that I think about, I haven't used ice magic since she died"_ Robin said as he let is hand glide across the covers of the tomes that lay on the table, his heart feeling heavy as he did.

The light orb start flying near Robin's head again, trying to get his attention.

" _What is it now?"_

It flies off once more.

" _I guess it has more it wants me to see"_

Robin follows the light orb once more, this time to one of the large book shelves that littered the place as it started dancing around it.

" _You want me to look for a book?"_

It just continued to comb around the shelves, so Robin just shrugged and pulled a book out.

" _What?"_ Robin said as he opened the book to see a blank page.

" _What this can't be right"_ Robin flipped through the pages of the book he held but they were all blank.

He put the book back on the shelf and grabbed another, but it was the same. After search around ten more books Robin just assume all of the book would be blank.

" _So why did you take me here little one?"_ he asked the tiny orb.

The orbs response to his question was to hover over the spine of one of the books on a shelf.

" _Hmm?"_ Robin walked over to it and point his finger to the book it was hovering over _"this one?"_

The orb of light settled itself on Robin's finger, so taking that as a 'yes' Robin pulled out the book and was surprised to see it pages weren't blank.

" _Umm what the heck is this?"_

Unfortunately, Robin had no clue as to what was written on the pages it front of him. The entire book seemed to be written in some strange language Robin had never seen before and if he was being honest every letter he looked at in this book looked more like chicken scratch to him. Nevertheless Robin gave it his best shot to attempt to decipher what was there, placing a finger over the text on the page as if touching it would instantly give him the ability to read what was there. But as He did so the letter on the page started to glow and Robin involuntarily spoke out.

" _The Galdr of Rebirth"_ Robin took his finger off the page _"Huh? How did I…?"_

Robin started to hear whispers in his head, but unlike G's voice, they were very faint and seemed too echo throughout the room as they were said. Then Robin felt words tickle the back of his throat, wanting to be released out through his lips, before Robin could attempt to stop himself he began to sing them out.

" _imisanakikeganonawot_

 _orokokumorodametemotoikot_

 _uaerufetotetiarahoimay_

 _odihciuomami"_

(Endless grief and sorrow.

Hearts slumbering again,

Stars frozen in their places:

Darkness envelopes the land.)

As Robin sang he felt a wave of serenity wash over his entire being. He closed his eyes allowing the words to slowly spill out in mystic like melody that even he himself didn't know could come from out of him.

 _"ikemazasanoyuosasemuyezak_

 _otegakomoukuyirutsuinuzimadat_

 _usawurufimimeokonotihonak_

 _uremisikadesoyiruketedikasibuy"_

(But in the spilling of blood,

A hope still glimmers dim.

In a reflection in the water.

In a whisper in the wind.)

As he continued he slowly started to understand what the words he sang meant and the whole Library began to brighten and come to live through this song.

 _"etih comikuuy, comikuuy ami_

 _ikotemisami orokok_

 _arosah asabust_

 _uam_

 _uamaros_

 _uamaros"_

(Gather your courage.

It will break the bonds of night.

Take wing, and dance upon the sky.

Take wing, and dance upon the sky.)

As Robin finished singing and opened his eyes the library felt brighter and warmer then it was before.

*WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH*

He heard the flapping of wings in his ears and noticed a few black feathers floating down towards is feet. Turning his head slightly Robin saw that he had grown six black wings on his back, but he cared not about the sudden growth of these new appendages, for his soul felt too at peace to think ill of the new development. The light orb started to flutter off again, so Robin return the book he was holding back to its rightful place before following it once more. The light lead Robin through the library until they reached a set of steps leading downward towards and even lower level, which kind of surprised Robin who thought the where on the first floor of the library.

" _A sub level maybe"_ he said as they made their way down.

The stairs didn't take them too far down and they lead to a hallway that lit up as they moved through it via magic torch light. Eventually the two stopped in front of a large door that bore the mark of the fell blood upon it, the symbol an exact match to the one on Robin's right hand. Robin drew his hand close to the door and touch it and in response the mark on it glowed a bright purple, then the purple light start to fade way; as if it was being completely erased, and the mark glowed the same vibrant mix of blue and green that the one on Robin's hand does. The door slowly began to open up into a large chamber that was filled with light from which shone from a skylight at the top of it. The chamber itself was like a garden, it was filled with grass, trees and bushes, roses of black, pink, and red were everywhere. From were Robin stood from his position at the doorway was a brick walkway that lead to a circular platform with a waterfall behind it; the water that came from the fall created a flowing waterway around the platform that flowed outward in several different directions in canals that Robin assumed kept the plants inside watered.

" _That can't be…"_

In the distance floating just above the ground of the platform was a long six winged dragon, black in color, with pink tipped feathered wings, two long horns popping out of its head, and six red eyes that all looked upon him.

" _Is this….Grima?"_ Robin said as looked at the beast.

He took a few steps closer.

" _But it looks way smaller then what the books described it be"_

Robin remembered some of the lore about Grima that he and Linnet stole during their time hunting for Grimlean hideouts, all of it describing the dragon to equal, no, dwarf Ylistol and Plegia in size, but this thing was way smaller than that; not to say it was small by any means, it was still far larger than any Wyvern Robin had ever seen or any manakete he had ever met.

" _If I'm no longer human then does that mean I'm a dragon now? Is this what I'm supposed to become"_

Robin asked himself as he peered at the dragon in front of him, he slowly started to get closer and closer to it. But as he did he started getting flashes of his past, flashes to the time he lost everything but his sister, flashes to the time he failed to protect the ones he cared about, and the reason that Grimeal came and took his their family away; to become Grima, to become a being that resembled this. Robin clutch his head, pain claiming him fast, he closed his eyes trying to shut out his surroundings.

" _You're not me, I will never become you"_

Robin opened his eyes slightly through the pain to see that everything was dying. The grass turned from green to a lifeless pale yellow, the trees and bushes began to rot, the water became black and murky, and the flowers wilted. The six winged dragon in the center continued to stare at Robin, but the look in its eyes changed; they almost looked sad. Then the room went black and Robin was left in a dark void, he began to hear what sounded like people crying behind him so he turned. His eyes widened at the sight, it was Chrom and Lissa kneeling over the body of Emmeryn, tears streaming down their faces at the sight of their late sister. The rest of the Shepherds stood close by, but they all looked at Robin, faces he recognized and some he had yet to see staring at him with eyes that screamed 'it's all your fault'

" _no…no…NO!"_

*pant pant pant*

Robin shot up from his bed breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his face as he awoke from his slumber.

' _Robin are you okay?'_ G ask with a worried expression on his face.

"imisanakikeganonawot

orokokumorodametemotoikot

uaerufetotetiarahoimay

odihciuomami"

Robin began to sing the song he learned in his dream once more and as he did he felt that same wave of peace calm his heart once more.

' _Robin where did you?...'_

*knock knock*

A knock came from the door and both G and Robin turned to look at it, then they looked at each other before Robin decided to get up, throw something on real quick and answer.

"Huh? Linnet, what bring you here so early?" Robin asked his twin who stood right outside his door.

"Good morning to you too" she said giving him a cheeky grin and handing him a piece of paper "do you think you can help me out with something?"

Robin looked over the paper and smiled "Sure thing, just try not to work them to hard okay?"

"No promises"

* * *

 **A/N: Oh ice magic, one of the things I seriously think they should make it's own thing in the FE universe. Speaking of, if you want how about coming up with 3 more names for ice magic spells that I can use in the story, you can include it's spell rank and a description of what it does if you like. Review if you have any questions about the story or just to tell me what you think of it so far and I'll be back with another one soon, seeya**


	12. Tournament Of the King part 3

_**A/N: Happy New Years everyone and sorry for such a long delay; Between finishing school and then the holidays coming up I've been busy. That being said with my birthday coming up in only 5 more days I felt like this needed to come out before it got delayed another week. I'm pretty tired at the moment so I'm not going to write and author's notes at the bottom and will just opt. to tell you to review or pm me if you want here. with all of that out of the way enjoy**_

* * *

 _ **Tournament of the King Part 3-The Promise**_

 _ **-One month ago near Valm Castle-**_

It had been almost a year since they left, almost a year since the two that became loved by the people, despised by the nobility and feared by those that crossed them departed off across the sea to focus on their own quandary. In this time many things began to occur all across Valm, most of which didn't bode well for the continent as a whole. At first the problems were strictly on a political level; with the twins gone shady back handed dealings, information leaks, and false accusations were being done under the noses of the common folk by the corrupt noble houses and dynasties seeking to gain more power. This power struggle was mainly due to the initially started and failed conquest attempt of Walhart after he was defeated by the twins and left many of the countries that neighbor Valm in shambles, which those with only selfish intentions saw as a way to expand their reach, gain more status and crush their political enemies under heel. This inevitably resulted in the middle and lower class people suffering from the political backlash of this 'shadow war' that they had no idea was even happening to begin with.

However all of that changed when Walhart began a new campaign, one that started slower than the last but had snowballed into something that eclipsed his previous one by an overwhelming margin. He had somehow amassed a new Calvary through some method, though how he convinced his new army to follow him was left unknown since the whole reason his first attempt even began was because of the premise that he was unfallible which was proven false with his defeat. His first act in showing that he had regain some semblance of power back was his retaking of the lands that he had claimed in his previous attempt with little to no effort on his part. This show of strength was enough to momentarily stop the more corrupt nobility from attacking one another and prepare for what they thought would be the return of the conqueror, however after that little display was shown Valm had gone quiet and didn't give any signs that they would be taking any farther action anytime soon. For those that really didn't want to get involved in a war and focus on their previous endeavors they thought nothing of this lack of activity and went about their business, but to those that had never involved their selves in what they thought was a pointless 'power grab' they saw this as nothing more than a simple reprieve from something greater to come. With such little known about Walhart's current military strength and any of his plans the king and queen of Chon'sin, at the behest of their eldest child Yen'fay, thought it prevalent to send people in to keep an eye out for even the smallest sign that something could happen.

Now standing watch a decent distance away from Valm Castle were 3 Chon'sin Soldiers that decided to go deep in what could be considered enemy territory, watching over where Walhart's main forces were being held. They have been monitoring the place for some time now and not seen any movement going on besides the occasional guard shift, which was standard procedure for any stronghold.

"We've been out here for 2 weeks now and we have yet to see any signs that show that they have any ill intent" One of the men spoke in an exasperated tone, clearly sick of being stuck here watching something that could quite possibly be a non-threat.

"Your right, but you have to remember that that we're on the outside, we have no clue as to what is going on behind those walls and as long as we are left in the dark we're at a clear disadvantage should they start an attack" another soldier replied to the first as he continued to monitor the guards on duty.

"He's right, beside after they so blatantly flaunted their military might and knowing their leader's previous track record do you really think that they don't have any farther plans in the works" The third member of their party spoke, trying to reassure her comrade that their actions have purpose.

"I understand that, but it's been mouths since Walhart displayed that little show and we still have other issues to worry about that are, in my opinion, far larger than this. The continent is going to hell because of poor choices being made by the higher powers, it makes me wish that _they_ were here to clean Valm up again"

She laughed at her comrade's statement "Be careful what you say, if you ask for those two demons to resurface they might actually show and if they do and see this mess there will be hell to pay and noble's heads might actually start to roll. As satisfying as that may sound it could actually affect the balance of Valm for the worst"

"Now that you mention it, that could be what Walhart is waiting for, maybe not for the twins to return, but perhaps he's biding his time and waiting for the political situation to weaken the other nations more before he strikes. I know that's what I would do if I was attempting to take over a continent, strike when they're at their weakest"

"Y'know that was shockingly really well thought out for you" she said giving her companion a sly grin.

"Oh shut up!"

"As riveting as this topic is we have movement, the guards are heading back in the castle" the one who was keeping watch says.

"So? It's probably just a guard shift, nothing new" the man said in an annoyed voice.

"I would have thought the same, but no others came to relieve the current guards from their duties" he said back.

"That is odd, they been follow their routine very strictly since we started watching them, in fact…" the female soldier looked up in the sky to confirm something "If the position the sun is in is any indicator, this shift is a whole hour early"

"You're right, somethings amiss" he said as he continued to watch what was going on.

"Perhaps a fight broke out and they needed more people to help contain it?" the other male soldier replied.

"Or perhaps they are under attack"

"Unlikely, that place is too well defended for an enemy unit to sneak in undetected" the female spoke.

"Wait did you feel that?" the first soldier asked.

"Feel what?" the other two ask him.

At first it was subtle, so much so in fact they could barely feel what was happening, then the feeling got stronger and they felt as the earth began to shift from under their feet.

"An earthquake?"

Then it turned into a violent tremor that almost knocked off their feet.

"This is really bad you two, get down!"

The soldiers dropped down to the ground and braced the violent shaking of the earth, trees began to shake in a dangerous manner; looking as if they were on the cusp of falling over.

"WHERE DID THIS COME FROM ALL OF A SUDDEN!?"

"I HAVE NO CLUE, BUT WE'LL JUST HAVE TO WEATHER THROUGH IT UNTIL IT SUBSIDES!"

The sudden earthquake continued to rattle on for a good while, but no sooner than it started did it too abruptly cease.

"Well that was unexpected"

"That's an understatement, but we're lucky it wasn't worse with how bad it got"

"Um, guys?"

"Huh?"

"Look" one of them pointed back to Valm Castle or where Valm Castle once stood.

"Dear Naga…."

"What is that?..."

In the spot where the castle once stood was a far larger castle in its place, one that seemed to continue reforming itself even as they stared at it. Large amounts of stone just floating towards on point and form a place far grander than the build that once occupied the spot (It's Rigel Castle).

"This took longer than I would've liked, it would seem I've grown weaker since I was last among the living" The three heard someone say as they decided to conceal their selves behind some trees.

The three then watched as someone began to walk down the road towards the newly formed castle. He was a short decrepit looking man with ghastly grey skin, he had Brown hair and looked like he only had one working eye, and he also was dressed in green mage robes and carried a tome that gave the Chon'sin soldiers a cold chill looking at it. His very presence screamed danger to the three as they watched him a get closer and closer to where they were hiding.

He turned his head in their direction "It would seem some vermin have stuck their noses in affairs that would be better left alone" he drew energy from his tome then raise is hand, spawning forth a void of dark power that spewed ghostly skull shaped orbs that floated around him "If they were wise they would scurry back to their din"

The Chon'sin soldier took that as their one and only warning to flee and ran as fast as they could away from dark mage.

"Insulant fools, it matters not what you try because soon all will bow to the might of Gharnef" he continued on his way to the newly reconstructed castle "Even you will soon fell dragon" he hissed that last statement with venom as he thought back to his first encounter with Grima.

 _ **\- one week ago The Mila Tree: Valm-**_

As she has done many times in the past Say'ri once again made her way up the great Mila tree to check on the Voice, however she wasn't making this long trek alone. Accompanying the princess of Chon'sin was a young women with rose colored hair who wore a maid outfit and walking directly behind her was her partner, which just so happened to be a very large wyvern. Cherche had come to Chon'sin to discuss the information that was reported by some scouts that had returned a few weeks back as an envoy of Rosanne, since Virion thought it was such good idea to go on vacation. Based on what the scout had reported Valm Castle had been completely changed before they're very eyes; this change was later discovered to be a complete restoration to what the castle formally looked like a few millennia ago, they also reported a suspicious person making their way towards the castle, though who this person was and what his purpose may be, they had no clue. With so little to go on and a clear plot in the works Say'ri suggested getting the advice of 'the voice of Naga' to see if she could possible shed some light as to what could be done next and since Cherche wanted to bring some information back to Rosanne back with her she decided it may be wise to tag along.

"So how close are we?" Cherche asked as they ascended the steps leading to Tiki's shrine.

"Tis only a little ways farther" Say'ri replied back as she steadied the bag at her side that was being blown by the constant stream of harsh wind.

"By the way… what do you have in that bag? Is it some kind of offering for the Voice?"

"Nay, these are simply my painting tools, whenever I come here on casual visits I find the shrine to be a most wonderful place to paint"

"I see, though I thought we were here to ask 'the voice' for advice"

"Aye we are, though I had not originally planned this trip to be about something like this, it would seem fate does not favor me in that regard"

"So true, it seems like that's starting to become the norm here with Valm now a days" Cherche stated with a slight scowl.

As the two approached the final steps leading to Tiki's shrine they were greeted to a brick covered lot in the middle of a grass bed that was in of itself surrounded by trees, and in the very center of it all was a shrine dedicated to 'The Voice of Naga' herself. What broke the normality of the scene that was before Say'ri was the fact that Tiki was shockingly already awake and that wasn't all, lay on the ground next to where Tiki sat was a young man who appeared to be asleep. As Say'ri, Cherche, and Minerva drew closer they noticed an assortment of weapons and tomes strew about around were Tiki and the red haired boy were.

Noticing the arrival of her guest, Tiki turned and greeted the ones coming towards her.

"Hello Say'ri it's nice of you to visit again and I see you have brought a guess with you as well" Tiki says as she turns to look at Cherche and Minerva.

"It's an honor to meet you" Cherche replied.

"Lady Tiki, what's going on up here? Say'ri asked.

"Whatever do you mean?" Tiki asked back with a look of confusion.

"Well for one; and do pardon me for saying this lady Tiki, but it's rear to find you here awake when I arrive, then there is also the matter of this person next you, who is he?"

Tiki cast her gaze back to the boy lying next to her "I do not know who this young man is, but a few days ago a loud noise and an immense power stirred me from my slumber and when I came out to see what it was I had found this boy here along with these items that lay around him"

"A few days you say? Has he been like this the enter time?" Cherche asked with a bit of concern.

"He has, though I would not worry. I don't know what kind of spell it is, but there seems to be some sort of magic keeping him asleep, however it also seems to be keeping him alive while in this state" Tiki answered

"What of these weapons that lay around" Say'ri asked.

"I do not know what they are, but each one of them has immense power coming from them, when I asked Naga about them she warned me not to touch them, so they must be dangerous"

"Hmm I see" Say'ri said as she gave the weapons another once over.

"Now then may I ask what has brought you here? I would have assumed that this was a causal visit, but something tells me that is not quite the case" Tiki asked

"Aye we were wondering if you could impart some wisdom onto us as to what's going on with Walhart and his men" Say'ri asked

"Hmm? Let me see" Tiki closed her eyes and just sat there for a moment without doing anything.

"Is she ok?" Cherche asked.

"Aye, she is just speaking with Naga at the moment"

Tiki then opened eyes, with a look of discomfort as she stood and began to walk over to her shrine.

"Lady Tiki?" Say'ri questioned her actions.

"I cannot tell you anything of Walhart, because Naga didn't speak of him, but I do need you to do two things for me Say'ri"

"What do you ask of me?"

"First Naga said to inform the one known as Robin of this boy and the weapons that lie here as quickly as you possibly can"

"We need to get a message to Robin? But we currently have no idea where he could be right now" Cherche told her.

"He currently is making his way to Regna Ferox and will more than likely be staying at Arena Ferox when he arrives" Tiki told her.

"What is the second thing you need?" Say'ri asked.

"I need you to take me to Divine Dragon Grounds, I need to perform the ritual to get my power back as soon as I can"

"Lady Tiki what's going on?" Say'ri said as she started to grow more concerned by how Tiki was acting.

"I'm sorry but I must prepare some things before we go" and with that Tiki made her way inside her shrine to prepare.

"What was that about?" Cherche asked.

"I have no clue, but we should prepare that message for Lord Robin and get it to him with haste" As Say'ri says this she opens her bag and readies her paints and some sheets of parchment.

"What are you about to do?"

"I going to paint the boy and the weapons lying about so he has a better idea as to what we're talking about in our message to him" Say'ri says as she begins to paint.

"That won't take too long will it?"

"Nay I should be able to get this done quickly enough, the problem is getting a message to him in a reasonable amount of time. It may take a month to get this across the sea to him and there is no guarantee that he will remain where he is until it gets to him"

"Hmm, I might have a way to make it work where we can get it to him quickly, it's something the twins mentioned to me awhile back, However that method is quite…..expensive" Cherche said as she thought about how much money she was I about to lose to get this letter sent.

'I guess I'll just take it out of Lord Virion's account' she thought to herself.

 _ **-The Night of the Second Day of the Tournament: Arena Ferox-**_

The masked swordsman, Marth, was setting in their room awaiting the arrival of one of their allies.

' _Where is she? She isn't trying to avoid coming here is she?'_

By now the matches for the day had ended, and Marth was not surprised to see that their ally had dominated the competition, what they didn't expect though was for them to be competing in something they specifically told them not to. For Marth the mask had come off, their hair had come down, and Marth wanted nothing more than to relax knowing everything was going according to how they planned it, but because of this all of that had to be put on the back burner and they were left waiting to see if they would show up or potentially do something else that could blow their covers. Marth's fears were put to rest when they heard a knock on the door that was done in a code that only their allies would know to do. Still Marth was cautious so on the way to the door they grabbed their mask and sword and spoke.

"With every foe we have the heart to face…"

There was a short pause before the person on the other side of the door replied back.

"We take back our future"

Knowing now that there was nothing to worry about Marth put away their sword and opened the door.

"Wow lucy paranoid much, come on put the mask away" said the cloaked girl as she entered the room.

Slightly annoyed by her friend's comment Marth, or rather Lucina, closed the door and took her mask off "I would be less paranoid if someone followed the plan while we're on an import mission"

"Wow your bed is awesome, way better the one I have at my hotel room, it so bouncy hehe" the cloaked girl said as she bounced up and down on Lucina bed.

"Are you even listening!? And would you stop jumping on my bed!?" Lucina shouted at the girl who looked like was having the time of her life jumping on her bed.

"Of course I heard you, after all I'm the one who helped come up with and approved this plan, or have you already forgotten who's the junior tactician is for our junior shepherds?" the cloaked girl asked as she stopped jumping on the bed, already getting the enjoyment out of the act that she wanted.

Lucina sighed "Your right, you **are** the tactician, which means you should know better than to do something that could potentially blow our covers Morgan"

Morgan let down her hood, letting her short black hair flow down as she glared back at Lucina with her mismatch eyes with a huff and a pout "You're one to talk, if anything you're more likely to blow our cover than I am"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lucina exclaimed with shock that she would even insinuate such a thing.

"I mean your first encounter with them couldn't be helped and I understand that we intend to throw the match during the battle of the Khans, but wouldn't you get suspicious of a random stranger appearing before you 2 times in a row in the span of less than 2 weeks?"

"I don't see how that has anyth-"

" **And** …" Morgan cut her off "That's not even addressing the elephant in the room" she said as she pointed at the Falchion that was resting against the dresser "The least you could do is use a different sword so people don't ask questions or have you forgotten that there is literally only one Falchion that looks like that in existence" Lucina looked as if she was going to rebuke her but before she could Morgan continued "and before you say anything, my father's Falchion does not count, it looks nothing like your dad's Falchion, which is why I brought up the fact that no one else should have a sword that looks like that"

"Which is why people will just think it's just a replica and not the real thing"

"Why risk it in the first place? In fact you'd be better off letting my brother or sister handle this rather than doing it yourself since your fighting style is a mirror image of Chroms' and they wouldn't have to hide their faces to conceal their brands like we would" Morgan stated as she pointed to her fell brand that was located in her right eye and acted as a stark contract to Lucina's brand.

Lucina didn't have anything to argue against Morgan with. She knew that she was right; she tended to be when it came to things like this, and despite Morgan's bubbly and carefree personality when it came to serious topics or situations she somehow managed to be the most serious out of everyone in their group, even herself.

Lucina gave a defeated sigh and sat down on the bed next to Morgan who was now giving her a warm smile "I know your right"

"I kind need to be most of the time"

The future princess let out another long sigh "But after I saw them again after so long that night, it took everything I had to not just throw myself at them. Its hard y'know to see them and not be able to say anything, which is why I guess I'm doing this, even if I can't tell them who I am or speak to them the way I want to, just seeing them and being able to be this close is enough"

"Which is why I didn't bring it up during our meeting, we all understood why you wanted to do this and that's why I didn't oppose you on it. Heck it gave me a reason to follow suit and do the same, which now that I think about it my big brother and sister will be at mad about, since they wanted to do it too" Morgan's expression turned to one of worry as she thought about what her sister might do to her when she finds her.

"Speaking of how long do you plan to hide from them?" Lucina questioned.

"Well at least until this tournament ends, actually I kind of half-expected for you to call them here as well and had intended to make a break for it as soon as I saw them in this room"

"I thought about" Lucina then gave the younger girl a sly grin "But I guess it must have slipped my mind"

A mock gasp escaped from Morgan's lips and she put a hand to the older girl's forehead "Oh my Naga, did you catch something Lucy? For a minute there I thought I saw and heard you do something out of character. Where did the serious and occasionally social awkward Lucy I've known almost all of my life and grown to love gone" she said dramatically.

Lucina playfully nudges her hand off of her "Geez, so much for trying to do something nice, if I knew you were going to tease me I might have actually called them here. Seriously I don't know who gets it worst sometimes, me or Inigo"

"Hey I take offence to that…you know I tease everyone in our little group equally" Morgan said as she gave a proud smile.

"Are you sure you don't go a little harder on Inigo?" Lucina asked while giving the younger girl a knowing look.

"Weeeeeeeeeeellll…maybe, I certainly wouldn't do it as much if he wasn't such an easy target" she said with a devious grin.

'There it is again' Lucina thought to herself as she lightly chuckled at Morgan, the calm feeling that came with being around her. She was always the like a bright sun that warmed the cold reality of their bleak future and one of only a handful of those who were able to get Lucina to truly relax and stop thinking of the negative. It was for that reason that Lucina was really happen that Morgan was one of the few she had found first.

"It's getting late, you should probably head back to your hotel soon"

Morgan's response to that was to lean back and let her back hit Lucina's much softer bed "Is it okay if I stay here tonight? Walking all the way back would take a while and your bed is like a prison I can't escape from"

"*sigh* fine, I guess I don't mind" Lucina said as she got up and turned off the lamp, leaving the only light source to come from the fire still burning in the fireplace 'not like anyone can say no to you anyway' she thought as she got in the bed as well and pulled the cover over them.

As soon as Lucina laid down she felt Morgan's arms wrap around her and her head rest against her chest.

"Good night Lucy" she said before she let sleep claim her.

Lucina smiled and wrapped her arms around her as well, allowing her head to rest just above the young tactician's head.

"Good night Morgan" Lucina said as she followed suit and fell asleep too. If Lucina would have stayed up just a little longer she may have notice tears start to form in Morgan's eyes and slowly trickle down her cheeks.

 _ **-Third Day of the Tournament-Early Morning: Arena Ferox-**_

If one were to pass by his room, they would hear the sound of voices coming from within. The scene was a normal one, most would even consider it mundane. Just two siblings talking to one another as they enjoyed each other's company in the early morning. But for them such an occasion of peace was uncommon, one that was so far from their norm that times like these had faded away into the realm of obscurity and had become one that they seldom got to enjoy. Robin was seated at his desk that was provided with his room, drafting up plans for his sister to use in her little scheme. In his haste to answer her, he was only dressed in an under shirt, a pair of pants, and his robes; his hair was in a far messy state, than it's normal 'controlled chaos' due to the fact that he just got out of bed. Linnet sat on his bed and watched as he went to work on the little project she had planned for her team to do today for their prep for the Battle of the Khans. She herself was also in morning mode, with her pajamas still on and with her own robes being throw on, on the way here as her only attempt to look semi presentable. Her hair, rather than being in its iconic pigtails, was down and went to about halfway down her back in a flowing silky white stream before ending in a burning auburn color at its tips, which many who meet her for the first time often think is just dye.

"You know, this has been fun. I've forgotten how it feels to be in such a large group and working in them" Linnet said as she played with her hair.

"Yeah I understand what you mean, it's been non-stop work for us over the past couple of years. I guess it just took joining the shepherd for me to realize that" Robin said with a faint smile.

"You say that like the work has stopped or do you not consider preventing a war to be work?" Linnet said jokingly.

"It's not like we haven't done it before" Robin replied back "Let's just hope that it doesn't become something we constantly get dragged into"

"Yeah lets…." Linnet then leaned forward a bit as she asked "So Robin, has a girl finally caught your eye?"

Robin finished up the last bit of what he was jotting down, turned towards his sister and raised an eyebrow "Huh? Where is this coming from all of a sudden?"

"Well I kind of had the idea back when you first introduced Lilina and Nephenee to us. Since they only would talk to you and you spent a lot of time with them I had assumed one of them had caught your attention"

"I'm guessing that's not the case now, so you must be referring to Ayra then, right? He asked.

"Oh so you already know her name huh, when I saw how you acted back at the arena I thought the world might end, I mean you showing romantic interest in someone is rare"

"I've hardly talked to her so I don't think it's right to say I have a romantic interest in her, however I do find her to be quite stunning in both the ways she looks and fights" Robin said as he opened his tome and drew magic from it.

"You're right, it is fun to see her fight….by the way, what are you doing now?" Rather than answer her question outright Linnet felt as the entire room grew a few degrees cooler and looked to see Robin form a shard of ice, her eyes widened at the sight "Well….that's a call back, it's been a long time since you last used it"

"Yeah I think I'll start using ice magic again, maybe teach someone else since I'm the only one who knows how to" Robin said while staring at the ice with a small but sad smile.

"That's actually one of the things I envy about you, the fact that I can't use any kind of anima magic means I couldn't join you and mom in her research" she said sounding a little disheartened.

"You did get your own lessons in light magic through" Robin said trying to cheer her up.

"My lessons in light and healing magic where the equivalent of yours in anima and dark, but you researching with mom felt like a thing just between just the two of you. Our blood pretty much guarantees that we have a high affinity with the magical arts and yet I was so bad at it, it's kind of depressing" she said as she let her head slump down; her messy morning hair following suit.

"I'd hardly call you bad at magic, especially since I can't use any of the magic you can; in fact very few people can use light magic at all, it makes you very special"

Linnet let out a soft giggle.

Robin smiled and asked "what's so funny?"

"This is…" Linnet said as she raised her head to face him "looking back, it's been so long since we just talked about anything other than…well you know" Linnet turned her head to the side at looked out the window.

"Yeah, I know…" the room went silent for a bit after that.

"Hey bro…" Linnet

"Yeah sis?"

"It's been a while, so could you…" Linnet fidgeted a little.

"Hmm?"

She pointed to her hair "Could you style my hair for me?"

Robin looked a little taken aback by the sudden request, but gave his sister a warm smile "Sure thing, since you're asking me I can only assume you what something other than you normal pigtails right?"

She gave a nod.

"Alright than" Robin then then spawned the same mirror he used the day prior, along with an ornate looking brush and comb, and some shampoo "let's wash it up real quick before we do anything else"

Robin went to go fetch a pail full of water while linnet removed her coat, took his desk chair and moved it to the center of the room before taking a seat. When Robin came back he put pail and two towels on the desk, making sure to move the plan he worked on out of the way. He took one of the towels he grabbed and put it over her shoulders, then he took a wooden ladle and filled it with water before slowing pouring it on her hair to get it wet before putting the shampoo in and lathering her hair thoroughly. He lightly scrubbed her hair and massaged her scalp, which elicited a pleasurable sigh from Linnet before rinsing a majority of the shampoo out with water. He then grabbed the comb and started combing out her soaking hair, meticulously combing through it with care. He repeated this process 2 more times until he was sure the shampoo was completely rinsed off and her hair was properly combed out, afterwards he took the second towel and lightly dabbed it on her hair to lightly dry it. Then he channeled magic into his hands as if preparing to launch a fire spell before the flow of his magic change and a wind smell was cast instead; blowing warm air to dry her hair completely. After her hair was dry Robin took the brush and started going through it again.

"So what brought this on? Why'd you what to change the way you wear your hair?" Robin finally asked.

Linnet averted her gaze slightly "No reason in particular…besides do I need a reason when you do such an amazing job with my hair each time?" She said with a bright smile.

"And then I'm the one stuck maintaining your hair until you figure out how to do it yourself" He gave out a short sigh while brushing her hair "Ever thought about growing it out more?"

"I did once, especially since mom had such long and beautiful hair, but I hardly even know what to do with the amount I have now; besides it's already a hassle to manage at times, I really don't know how mom lived with hers"

"Tell me about it, her hair almost touched the floor, but knowing mom she probably created and spell or hex to make sure her hair always stayed in perfect condition. It certainly never got in the way when she was training us" he smiled at the memory.

"That's true and sounds like something she would do just for convenience sake" Linnet said with a giggle.

"So do you have any idea as to what you want to go for with your hair?" Robin asked.

"I want you to leave a majority of my hair down, but could braid either side of my hair and have it meet in the back to make a small ponytail?" Linnet questioned.

"Coming right up" Robin said as he took a portion of her hair and began to braid it.

"About your eyes…" Linnet started

"I was wondering when you'd bring them up"

"Chrom told me about them yesterday, he said you seemed a little distraught when you saw them and decided to tell me"

"I'm sorry"

"For what Robin?"

"I'm sorry because my eyes look like _his_ now" He said in a sad tone.

'You had the same eyes back than too, but I guess you don't remember that happening 5 years ago' she thought to herself.

They remained quiet for a bit until Linnet asked "Hey Robin, what are we doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why'd we join the shepherd?"

"You know why"

"But…I don't want them to get involved in our problems, what if-"

"There's no 'what ifs' we won't let the same thing happen twice, besides so long as Ylisse and Plegia are at odds against one another the Grimeal will be involved and that all the reason we need to help" Robin reassured her.

"Yeah you're right" Linnet said, still sounding unsure.

"…and done" Robin smiled and grabbed the mirror "So how does it look?"

Linnet looked in the mirror and saw her hair still flowing straight down, going along the sides of her head were portions of hair tied into braids that connected into a tiny ponytail at the back that lay above the rest of her hair.

"It's just what I wanted, thank you!" she said getting off her chair and giving her brother a hug.

"Anytime, now I should probably get ready for the day" He handed her the plans he wrote up "Good luck with that"

"Thanks, see you later 'king'" she said as she grabbed her cloak and exited his room.

As Linnet left Robin looked to the brand on his right hand.

"Hey G"

' _Yes Robin?'_

Robin shook his head "Never mind, we can talk about it later"

" _Very well"_

Without wasting anymore time got himself ready and left as well to start his day.

…

The tournament was more energetic than normal, with the contestants giving it their all in every fight, however the one dominating each fight he competed in was Lon'qu. With every victory Lon'qu claimed he made sure to give Robin a stern look from the fighting platform before exiting as if to silently say 'I'm coming for you' each time. Robin couldn't help but smile at his determination.

"Looks like Lon'qu ain't taking that lose to you lightly, huh boy?" Basilio stated with a smirk.

"He certainly isn't being subtle about" Robin said as he gave a small chuckle.

"But I can understand where he's coming from, I might need to get a rematch too once all this business is done" Flavia commented.

'A nation filled with people who hunger for battle' Robin internally sighed "I'm kind of missing the calmness of Valm"

" _A land whose people value power, it reminds me of another place"_ G said

'I'm guessing you can only recall bits and pieces of that place and don't remember everything?'

" _That place has no effect here actually so it be pointless to discuss about it"_

'Really? You know that just make me more curious' Robin turned his attention to the empty booth the shepherd normally would be in 'I wonder how that's going'

…

Chrom, Frederick, Lilina, and Virion were all at an empty training field awaiting the arrival of the last member of their group. After their short training session the day prior Linnet had told her team that she had a plan and that she wanted them to report there at noon and to bring their weapons.

"Sorry I'm late everyone" The heard someone call out from behind them.

They all turned to see Linnet walking over with her Alondite in hand and a tome that she was putting into one of the four pouches she had along her belt. However what caught their attention the most wasn't her walking over, but the new look she was sporting.

"And I see everyone is equipped and ready" Linnet stated as she reached them.

"Wow I really like what you did with your hair, it looks so pretty" Lilina commented.

"Oh this? It does look nice doesn't hehe" Linnet said as she brought a hand to her locks.

"Nice doesn't even begin to describe this new found radiance that you have graced us with. I dear say…" Virion began to go on a rant so every started tuning him out.

"I've got to admit the look suits you quite well" Chrom said giving his opinion.

"Thank you, I appreciate the complements" Linnet said while at the same time bringing and open palm up and chopping Virion over the head to get him to stop blathering. She noticed Frederick said nothing, but just assumed that was because their relationship was still a little rocky and gave it no farther mind.

"So what do you have planned for us today?" Frederick asked.

"We're doing mock battles today against another group" Linnet answered.

"Interesting, against who?" Chrom questioned.

"Against us" They heard someone say as what sounded like a group was drawing near. They looked to see the rest of the shepherd arriving.

"It's good to see you all came" Linnet greeted.

"Whatcha talking about, teach is always down for a brawl miss…." Vaike stopped unsure who he was addressing.

"Linnet" she answered.

"Oh my goodness Linnet I love what you did with your hair" Sumia complimented.

"Thanks, but I can't take the credit for it, that goes to Robin"

"No way! Robin did that for you?!" Lissa questioned as she approached Linnet to get a closer look "It looks so shiny and there's not even a single hair out of place, do you think he could do me too?"

"I don't know, with all the pranks you pulled on him on our way here I doubt he'd be willing"

Lissa pouted "Hey I said I was sorry afterwards"

"I'm only joking, I'm sure he'd be more than happy too"

She instantly brightened back up "Really?"

"Do you think he'd be willing to do me as well" Sumia asked.

"Me too" Lilina joined.

"Hey! Are we here to fight or talk about hair? Sully intervened.

"Honestly I didn't expect Robin to have such a skill, interesting" Stahl said more to himself than anyone else.

"Not you too" Sully said bringing hand to her forehead.

Nephenee than grabbed everyone attention by bashing her lance and shield together "We're burning day y'all so let's get this under way, Linnet tell what to do"

"Alright then everyone it's actually quite simple, we holding a mock battle that will be between us, the ones who will be participating in the Battle of the Khans and you our practice opponents. Lissa will be here to provide heals for any injury we might receive and since there is 7 of you on that side vs our 5, 2 of you will have to switch out between matches" Linnet stated.

Everyone started looking around for a bit until Vaike said "Hey wait, ain't there only 6 of us?" and a bunch of people started nodding in agreement until Linnet pointed directly behind him.

"You guys always seem to miss Kallem for some reason, which is a little concerning"

Everyone looked in the direction she was pointed and jumped a little when they did see Kallem right there behind him.

"Dear Naga…you can see me too!" Kallem practically cheered as a small stream of tears flowed down his face and a bright smile graced his features.

Chrom turned to her "So what's the catch? When you left yesterday you had a grin on your face that spelled trouble"

"Thanks for asking Chrom" she said as she flashed that very devious smile "the catch is that the opposing team just so happens to have a battle formation designed by our very own tactician" Linnet said as she handed Sully the paper with Robin's drafted up plans to show to the rest of her team.

She then continued "We've so far been working on minor combat improvement and in between said improvements we've only just started getting our team synergy down, this mock battle is too improve that" she looked at her whole team with a very serious expression "That being said I want you to go into to this expecting to lose and not get discouraged when it happens, because even a team of elite fighters can lose a group of people who are individually weaker than them if they're the one with a more solid game plan"

At that the whole team shifted into a more serious mood and nodded.

Linnet than addressed the group as a whole "One last thing, although this practice is to help the five of us, I want everyone to consider this to be a group exercise for the shepherd as a whole, Naga forbid we actually we get into a conflict with anything other than those zombies-"

"Risen" Chrom corrected with a smirk which earned him a glare from her.

"But…" Linnet said in a slightly more irritated tone because both Robin and Chrom knows she loathes that name "But it's good to have the experience nonetheless. And so with all of that out of the way let's begin"

With that the Mock battles between the members of the shepherds started.

…

It was late into the night, in one of the empty practice fields, as Ayra swung her sword in multiple slashing and stabbing motions as a moderate amount of sweat was gliding down her brow. She had been there for a few hours as evident by the amount of cut dummies and even a few visible shallow trenches she made in the dirt with her sword. This last little bit was just a cool down after her workout and when it was complete she would pack her items up and vacate the field. She was in mid swing as she heard a voice directly behind her.

"Working hard I see"

Ayra took a sharp breath and instinctively brought her blade around and had it pressed against her surpriser's neck. When she final got a look at the person behind her she was unsurprised to see that it was just Reflet standing there, beside the fact that he tends to come here late in the night to train, he was the only person here so far that could get the drop on her.

"I guess I should have learned from the first time not to sneak up on you huh?"

Now knowing exactly who she was dealing with Ayra let out a short sigh and lowered her blade before releasing the tension in her shoulders and letting her head and back slump down toward the ground.

"It's normally not a problem because no one else is able to, you're the only one who manages to sneak up on me Reflet" she then felt something cool hit her forehead and when she looked up she saw a flask.

"It water, you look like you could use some" Robin said while smiling at her.

She look at it for a moment before hesitantly grabbing it out of his hand and taking in a few swigs.

"Thank you" she said after letting a small smile grace her face as she handed the flask back.

'Was she just smiling?' Robin thought to himself, thinking it odd for to have any sort of expression other than her typically stoic one.

"I'm actually glad you showed up, I kind of wanted to talk to you" She said breaking Robin out of his thoughts.

"Huh? You wanted to talk to me?" Robin questioned.

Ayra response was a somehow softer gaze, from her normally sharp eyes, as she simple nodded.

"Okay than, what did you want to talk about?"

"I want to know more about you" she bluntly stated.

"You wanna what?" Ayra just let the man in front of her wrap his mind around what she said and waited for him to continue "Why?" was all Robin could muster.

"Because ever since I found myself in this place, you have become the biggest mystery to me"

Robin stared at her a bit more before he spoke again "I didn't think I could ever leave a strong enough impression for someone to say that to me in just 3 days" Robin stated to himself as he cast his eyes to the side. He didn't mean what he said as an offhanded commit, he meant it as a fact that he prided himself in. Up until the point he and his sister got too involved in Valm's darker affairs, the only thing people knew of them were their exploits, meaning that they could only rely on the own imagination as to who they were. Both Robin and Linnet learned early on that being too famous or too infamous could lead to unwanted attention, so they made a point to become those faces that could easily be forgotten.

"Trust me, I'm hardly an interesting person to talk to, let alone talk about" Robin final said to her.

"That's where you're wrong, because to me you hold quite a bit of interest" She said in an honest tone.

At those words Robin couldn't help the slight blush that dusted his cheeks for the briefest of moments, even though he knew she didn't mean it in such a way it still got to him, even if only shortly. Robin gave a sigh knowing he wasn't going to get out of this so easily. "Very well I'll tell you a little about myself if you want me too, however I want you to do the same for me, deal?"

"I had already intended to" she said as she let her lips curl up into another smile.

Robin couldn't help but think her smile was beautiful "So where should I start?"

"How about you tell me how you learned how to fight" Ayra had only seem bits and pieces of Reflet's swordplay but she knew he was good so she wanted to get an idea of what kind of training he went through.

"Well I was raised in a mercenary camp along with my sister. My mother and my master, who was the mercenary group leader, taught me almost everything I know" he answered.

"I see, so you've been training since you were a child pretty much, correct?"

"Pretty much" Robin said giving her a smile.

"I can see that in the way you move, like it's been etched into you. Very well you may ask of me what you will" She told him ready for his question.

Robin already knew what he wanted to know so he just voiced it out "So I assume you not from Regna Ferox, right? So from where do you hail?"

Ayra turned her gaze to the sky as she answered his question "I hail from Isaach, a country on the continent of jugdral, and a place I hold close to my heart" She said almost wistfully.

"No way…you're from Isaac?" Robin said in a slightly more excited tone.

Ayra picking up on this looked back at him "I take it that you've heard of it?"

"Of course I have, any person aspiring to at least use a sword half decently looks at Isaacian swordplay for inspiration, it's were the first great swords masters all used to come from"

At this Ayra couldn't help but to let another smile show from hearing her homeland receive such praise.

"But if you from Jugdral than aren't you quite a ways away from home?" Robin asked.

"I am indeed, which did sadden me a first, but now I'm using my time spent here to grow stronger" her face saddened a bit and she said just above a whisper "Strong enough to ensure something like that never happens again"

Noticing her sudden change in mood Robin asked "Is that why you wanted to fight me so badly yesterday?"

"It was" She faced him once more resolve in her sharp eyes "Because I believe you are the one who can break me out of my shell and can push me to new heights, so Reflet…" She raised her sword towards him once more "I ask again, will you duel me? Will you give me the honor of crossing blades with you?"

Robin could see it, that burning resolve that she had when she asked him to fight. So strong was her passion that it set his own heart ablaze and made him want to do nothing more than except her challenge, however he could not, at least not now "I'm sorry to say this but I still can't" at this she deflated a little but then she swiftly rebounded.

"You said that you are here on vacation right? At least until the Battle of the Khans is over?"

"I did…" Robin answered not know where she was going with this.

"Then how about this, after that day's events ends, we meet here one last time and we have a match"

Robin couldn't help smiling at that "I guess **technically** my vacation here would be over huh, But won't you be tired from your quarter-final battle of the tournament? And that's not even accounting for if you go on to semi-finals or battle the king" he tried to reason.

"I know about my other battle or possibly battles on that day, even still I'll come if it means you'll give me a match" Ayra said with even more resolve then before.

"Very well than…" Robin put out his hand "than let's make it a promise shall we? I swear after the Battle of the Khans is over I'll meet you here so that we may cross blades"

At that Ayra just stared at him, the thought of the red eyed greenette being somewhat dashing to her crossing her mind; which felt odd to her since she couldn't say she felt that way about any man in Sigurd's army. She quickly banished the thought and took his hand "I promise the same"

"Good…" Robin said as he shook her hand sealing the deal before releasing it "Now if you'll excuse me I think I have so training to get done" he said as he made way for the weapon's rack, his blue bandana drifting whimsically in the wind as he walked away.

Ayra let her eyes linger on his form a moment longer before taking her leave.

…

As Robin reached his room, he fully expected to lay on his bed and drift off to sleep. However those plans were dashed as a carrier had come to him delivering a large envelope that was addressed to him. Now he sat at his desk, giving what he just received his full attention, and upon closer inspection noticed a stamp at the bottom that said _'Anna's quick delivery'_ meaning that this letter was sent through the same line that the Anna's all around world use to share information between one another.

'Which means whoever sent this is probably in debt right now' Robin thought to himself, knowing how expensive sending information this way could be if you didn't know how to haggle with the Annas properly. But the fact that whoever sent it went to such lengths to begin with to get it to him told Robin of its import, so wasting no more time he swift opened the envelope and was instantly greeted with a bunch of paintings.

"What are these?" he said as he began to look through.

What he saw were weapons painted out on sheets of paper. He had never seen them before but oddly enough that felt familiar to him, two in particular caught his eye; they were a giant broadsword and a golden ax.

"Lord Eliwood, Lord hector…" Robin said as he stared at the paintings. He then took notice a staff of some kind that had three blades at its end as well. He didn't get the feeling from this one that he got from the sword and ax but he felt something nonetheless. When Robin looked at the final painting his eyes widened, then the light in the faded as the room began to spin around him.

"Roy…."

…

In the courtyard of Castle Ostia the sound of two children playing could be heard in the background. Sitting not too far away was four adults and friends talking to one another as they enjoyed the day. They had not spoken of anything important, just thought back to when they all met one another and how they've continued to keep the strong bonds that they made together throughout the years. That was until a certain blue haired man, that had grown a bread out over the years and looked much like his late brother, broached a certain topic to a tactician and a girl from the plains.

"You know…you two aren't getting any younger, so have you thought about having kids yet?" Hector asked Mark and Lin as he took another sip of his drink.

"He's got a point y'know, I've been wondering much the same" Eliwood said as he looked towards the two.

Mark had grown used to expressing himself more over the years, so when the topic came up and all he could offer was a nervous chuckle and a grin Hector and Eliwood knew something was up.

"Well you see…" Mark looked towards his wife who gave him a bright smile "We might have already had some"

"…"

"….."

"…."

"WHAT!?" both Hector and Eliwood screamed out in unison.

"Yeah, we have a little girl and boy back at home" Lin told the two shocked lord.

"Why that's great new!" Eliwood exclaimed happy for the two.

"Great news my ass! Why didn't tell us sooner!?" Hector questioned.

"Because Lin thought if we told you about it that you'd want to name them, and she had zero faith you would be able to give them proper names" Mark spoke.

"HEY!" Lin said giving her husband glare.

"What you wouldn't have been able to lie to them about it anyway" Mark told her knowing it was pretty much impossible for her to do so.

Hector smirk and just said "Yeah you're probably right about that" before laughing

"So why didn't you bring them with you?" Eliwood asked.

"Unfortunately the both got sick, so we left them with Florina, who is taking care of them until we return" Mark told him.

"Well don't leave us suspense, how old are they and what's their names?" Hector asked.

"Well we had them a year apart so one is three and the other is two" Lin started "We named our three year old daughter Kurisu and our two year old son is named Kris"

….

…

…..

….

…


End file.
